TOURISM AND COMPETITION IN THE ITALIAN LEGAL SYSTEM 331 As a consequence of the fragmentation of the administrative system, and notwithstanding the outstanding economic relevance of the sector, Italy has showed difficulties and delays in the development of tourism policies which are able to face the supranational competitive dynamics. The expansion of the sharing economy, for instance, made evident the need of regulating new types of activities and services, to prevent from creating advantageous conditions which can be reflected in the balances of the reference market, and consequently skew the competitiveness towards the more traditional operators. With Decree-Law no. 50 dated 24 April 2017, the Italian legislator regulated the phenomenon under a fiscal point of view, without classifying this activity between businesses, and thus introducing a taxation of twenty one per cent with a flat rate tax for short duration leases, including those with online platforms working as intermediaries, such as Airbnb16. In the attempt of outlining a more unified tourism policy at a national level, which is able to promote the “Italy” brand in the supranational market and, at the same time, of providing to all actors involved an orientation tool, in the form of a multi-year touristic development strategic plan (PST 2017-2022), was adopted in 2017. The plan includes, in the first instance, the integration between many governmental levels and the direct involvement of active stakeholders in the tourism industry, with the purpose of outlining organic and coherent tourism policies, with competition limits imposed at European level. In order to increase the competitive skills of the Italian touristic sector compared with the foreign ones, the plan promotes the digitalization and innovation of the sector through the development of big and open data platforms for the collection of data about touristic mobility, as well as upgrading with touristic purposes some infrastructure no longer in use. In that respect, it is interesting to highlight the recent approval in the region of Emilia-Romagna of a regional law aimed at regulating the activity of condhotel, with the function of promoting the process of regeneration of existing properties, previously dismissed and unused, which were classified as “marine colonies”17. The plan intends to exploit the attraction of primary destinations (so called “mature destinations”) in order to amplify and diversify the touristic offer, 16 See Art. 4 of Decree-Law no. 50/2017. 17 See Regional Law of Emilia-Romagna no. 3 dated 23 April 2019.
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