Feature: Rome's hotel sector on its knees after nearly eight months without tourists

ROME, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hit hard by the near-complete tourism blackout in the Italian capital sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, most of Rome's more than 1,800 hotels remain closed, and as many as half may never open again, according to research from one of Italy's main hotel industry groups.

Rome is one of the world's 20 most popular tourist destinations, according to Euromonitor International. But tourist arrivals to the city were blocked starting in March when the government applied Europe's first national coronavirus lockdown. The country opened its borders in stages starting in May, but only a trickle of tourists arrived after that and even that trickle slowed starting in September when coronavirus cases began to surge again.