Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 3 November 2008. This podcast is also available at Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.

• Will Obama's holiday habits catch on?

   

  President-elect and body-surfing fan Barack Obama could break the [previous] trend of White House incumbents by travelling overseas for his holidays. As well as trips to Hawaii to catch a few waves and take walks along the beach with his wife and children,

• Officials Aim To Use Inaugural To Promote Hawaii

   

  ...national media already are generating interest in Hawaii sites connected to Obama. It likely won't be long before local tour companies are offering tours of Obama's childhood neighborhood, his grandparents' apartment and where he went to school.

• For Inaugural, Obama Faithful Say It's Washington or Bust

   

  Despite some rates surpassing the $1,000 per night mark, rooms are also booking, on average, three times faster than for the last inauguration, according to the travel Web site Expedia.com. Many hotels have imposed two- and three-night minimum stays.

• Thousands clamour to see realisation of dream

   

  Officials said the crowd could surpass the 1.2 million who attended Lyndon Johnson's inauguration in 1965. Senator Obama's election set off an instant desire to see his inauguration and frenetic efforts last week to be present for what will be a milestone in American history.

• Barack Obama factor boosts US tourism

   

  A [UK] Telegraph poll shows that 80 per cent of readers are more likely to visit the US now than they were before the presidential election. Until now many Telegraph readers have said they have been put off the US by its draconian border security arrangements and the foreign policy decisions made by George Bush.

• Some Truth To An Irish O'Bama?

   

  Moneygall, a town of 300 on the road between Dublin and Limerick, says that Barack Obama's great, great, great grandfather was born there and hopes for an onslaught of American tourism.

• Illinois Banks on Obama Buzz to Boost Tourism

   

  "experience the city the Obamas enjoy." The Illinois Bureau of Tourism plans to launch a three-day getaway promotion featuring Barack Obama sites.

• Hotel prices, bookings soar for inauguration

   

  ...a $20,000 "Live Like a President" package. It includes tickets to an inaugural event, replica of an inauguration ball meal prepared by a personal chef, in-room massage and $1,000 shopping spree. There's a sanitizer (to combat germy glad-handing) and lip balm to aid in baby-kissing.

• Jamaica may suffer ... If US lifts Cuban embargo

   

  On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to lift the American trade embargo on Cuba. The vote in the 192-member world body was 185 to three, with two abstentions. The US, Israel and Palau voted no, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.

• Japan’s hottest new tourist destination: Obama

   

  “We started this as a joke,” said Yasunori Maeno of the “Obama for Obama” campaign he helped organize. “But as we came to know more about him … and his emphasis on community, the more we liked him. It is important to love the place you are from and to work to promote it.”

• Obama may mean higher airline labor costs, fewer route auctions

   

  Obama's mediation board may take steps such as granting quicker releases from mediation, which would let unions start countdowns to possible strikes sooner, said Andrew Steinberg, former transportation assistant secretary under President George W. Bush.