Stories discussed in this podcast are from the Travelography Twitter Blog for the week of 24 November 2008. This podcast is also available at Blubrry.com and Travelgeography.info.

• Budgets Shrink, and Holiday Airfares Follow Suit

   

  The travel industry is bracing for a painful holiday season as people scale back their discretionary spending. But that is good news for anyone who has yet to book a winter getaway, with hotels, airlines and cruise operators introducing last-minute deals to entice vacationers.

• Tourism Situation in Thailand - as of November 27, 20:30 hrs. (Bangkok Time)

   

  TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) is cooperating with the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), AoT, and Thai Airways (TG) to set up a Crisis Networking Center on the fourth floor of the Departure Terminal in Suvarnabhumi International Airport in order to facilitate the stranded passengers and tourists until the airport resumes normal operations.

• Terrorists Strike in Mumbai (ABC New Photos)

   

• Commandos battle room by room to save tourists - Mumbai

   

  Helicopters buzzed overhead as the commandos, faces blackened, moved into one of the hotels, the Oberoi, where 20 to 30 people were thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others were trapped in their rooms. A 15-strong Air France team was among those unable to get out.

• Thai PM declares emergency at two airports

   

  Thailand's tourism minister says authorities plan to begin flying thousands of stranded travellers out of one or two military bases in the next 48 hours. Meanwhile, it's the hour of reckoning for thousands of anti-government protesters in Thailand who are trying to force Prime Minister Somchai to resign.

• In Pictures - Bangkok airport disruption

   

  Passengers queue in front of check-in desk inside Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Thousands of passengers are stranded after Suvarnabhumi Airport had been ordered closed because of a blockade by anti-government protesters.

• Nearly 80 killed in multiple Mumbai, India shootings, blasts against tourists

   

  A group calling itself the "Deccan Mujahedeen" claimed responsibility for the assaults on the landmark Taj Mahal and Trident hotels in the south of the city and a number of shooting and bombing incidents elsewhere, the Press Trust of India said. One report spoke of militants taking hostages and demanding US and British passports.

• Airport Travelers Caught In Thailand Protests

   

  The takeover "damaged Thailand's reputation and its economy beyond repair." The airport, the 18th-busiest in the world, handled over 40 million passengers in 2007.

• Crisis in paradise: Economic meltdown creates ghost resorts in the Caribbean

   

  ...the sprawling Atlantis resort in the Bahamas laid off about 800 workers, citing low occupancy rates. Baha Mar Resorts Ltd. laid off about 40 employees at its Sheraton Resort in the Bahamas and 40 more at the Wyndham Nassau Resort. The Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union has called a demonstration Thursday to demand government aid.