It was another round of the unlikely-destination Olympics this weekend with each paper trying harder than the last: Libya! Vanuatu! Angola! Honorable mentions go to the Times of LA and London, respectively, for pieces on car-cult tourism in Germany and love-cult tourism on Aphrodite’s isle, Cyprus.

On a more sober note, USA Today ran a piece encouraging renewed tourism to New Orleans since the the most-visited parts of the city – the Garden District, the French Quarter – were relatively unharmed by Katrina, and much needed tourist dollars will only spur redevelopment. A story from the San Francisco Chronicle, on the redevelopment of Kauai’s east shore, where visitorship has been low and at least one major property derelict since Hurricane Iniki blew through 14 years ago, shows what a long and hard road New Orleans has ahead of it.

- ‘French Quarter set to roll’ (USA Today)
- ‘Tripoli: Once a Pariah, Now a Hot Spot’ (NYT)
- ‘The Original Bali Hai’ (NYT)
- ‘In Post-War Angola, Glimpses of an Emerging Country’ (Washington Post)
- ‘Kauai’s east side comes into its own’ (SF Chronicle)
- ‘Temples of Vroom’ (LA Times)
- ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ (Times of London)