As the rituals for the selection of a new Catholic Church head- the Papal Conclave starts Tuesday, March 12, Rome will not only welcome a new pope but garner some fresh business in a recession hit economy.
Since the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, Pilgrims have been flocking the Italian capital to pay their respects and witness the legendary Papal Conclave ritual. With the influx of pilgrims in the region, hotels are overflowing and the cash registers ringing.
According to the Manila Times, hotels in Rome have been packed. With the increase in demand, prices of rooms have gone up exponentially. Prices at the four-star Metropolis Hotel, which is just a short walk from St. Peter's Square, have soared by 3 percent.
"We're booked up, we've had to turn people away!" Antonio Galati, director of Metropolis Hotel, said to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Room rates in other hotels are as high as $1300 a night. Balconies are also being rented out for massive prices.
Casevacanza.it, a Roman listing website claims that advertisements for rented holiday apartments have gone up by 20 percent. Requests for housing had already hiked by 30 percent, even before the date of the conclave was confirmed.
Pope Benedict XVI is the first pontiff to resign from office in 598 years, hence, this conclave is even more special for the pilgrims. Souvenir shops have been making good money on the event, selling "Vacant-see" envelopes and stamps. The special stamps and envelopes are issued only when there is no Pope. These souvenirs are of great economic and cultural value. The Vatican post office itself has sold over 150,000 Vacant sees, reports the Catholic News Agency.
Furthermore, Galati thinks that Roma tourism would get a solid boost if the new pope was non-Italian. Pilgrims are also expecting a non-European pope his time.
A new app, "The Conclave Alert" has also been launched to track the announcements and real time events of the papal conclave. The app also gives background information on Cradinals and trending Papal Conclave stories on the web.
Check out the timetable of the Papal Conclave, here.
Since the great global recession and the euro crisis, Italy is now in the fourth consecutive year of recession. Business is hit so hard that the number of suicides for economic reasons has increased by the years. More recently, the recession seems to have deepened. The country's economy shrank by 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, stretching the long economic gloom.
In a latest report by Fitch Ratings, experts assert that the political uncertainty and an unstable government could lead the economy further downhill. The report also suggests that a recovery is not possible until the second quarter of 2013. If that is true, the Papal Conclave might just be a great start.