ROME — While the world economic crisis forces many consumers to change spending habits, at least one of Italy's economic sectors has so far been barely touched: religious tourism.
Italy, which surrounds Vatican City, the spiritual home to the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, boasts more than 30,000 churches and sanctuaries, according to the country's Ministry of Culture. That's more churches per capita than any other major country. And according to United Nations' World Tourism Organization statistics, seven of the world's 10 most visited Christian sanctuaries are in Italy.
Official figures are hard to come by because visitors to Italy are not required to indicate whether or not their vacation is religious in nature.
Italy's Ministry of Tourism reports that overall tourism over the first two months of the year is down by a fifth over the same period last year.
