FOR the head of
the hoteliers’ association in Rome, the announcement was “manna from heaven”.
On March 13th Pope Francis declared an extraordinary jubilee, or holy year, that
will last from December 8th 2015 until November 20th 2016.
In the late
Middle Ages, the church used jubilees to market indulgences to shorten the stay
in purgatory. Nowadays, holy years mostly generate profits for others. Shares
in Atlantia, Italy’s biggest motorway concessionary, rose by more than 3% after
last week’s news.
“The flow of visitors is not concentrated into
a brief period, as happens with big sporting events like the Olympic Games or
the football World Cup,” notes Matteo Caroli, a professor at the
business-oriented Luiss University in Rome. The most recent jubilee in 2000
brought an estimated 25m visitors to Rome, a rise of about a quarter on the
previous year.
The capital’s
left-wing mayor, Ignazio Marino, expects “a big leap forward” in the city’s
GDP. Tourism businesses say they will be satisfied with 15% above normal. But
nobody knows how many people the hugely popular Francis will attract.
A vast security
operation will be needed, and perhaps emergency funding. However, with less
than nine months to go and the government’s 2015 budget already decided, there
is no scope for a grand plan to boost infrastructure.
The mayor has already
announced plans. The city will further pedestrianize the road through the
forums, reopen a long-disused railway line, expand a metro station and increase
the frequency of trains to and from Fiumicino airport.
The Vatical will
formally proclaim the Jubilee on Sunday April 12 and place the bull on the
front of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica.
