The Pope Leo XIV effect: Rome hopes for papal blessings of a US tourist boom

<p>Traders anticipating increase in high-spending Americans are already working up Leo-themed beers and ice-creams</p><p></p><p>Even before the chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel emitted its last puff of white smoke, signalling to the world that the Roman Catholic church had a new pope, Atlante Star, a hotel with a privileged view over St Peter’s Basilica from its rooftop terrace, began to receive inquiries about room availability over the following few days.</p><p>Then, about an hour later, when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/08/white-smoke-signals-election-of-new-roman-catholic-pope">the Chicago-born cardinal Robert Prevost was declared Pope Leo XIV</a>, the inquiries turned into bookings as the tourists, mostly from the US, rushed to secure a place to stay in Rome in time for the pontiff’s inaugural Sunday mass on 18 May.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/16/the-pope-leo-xiv-effect-rome-hopes-for-papal-blessings-of-a-us-tourist-boom">Continue reading...</a>