Barack Obama inauguration tickets touted for $40,000

There is one booming sector of the US economy into which colossal sums of cash are still being injected: the sale of tickets and hotel rooms for Barack Obama's inauguration.

The excitement over the January 20 swearing in of America's first African American president is at such fever pitch that tickets for the ceremony - which are distributed for free - are already being touted on the internet for as much as $40,000 each.

Organisers of the event predict that the number of people who descend on Washington could exceed the record 1.5 million that watched the swearing in of Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The 95,000 hotel rooms in the city are already close to sold out and those looking for accommodation are being forced to search in neighbouring Virginia and Maryland.

At the Willard Hotel, one of the grandest in Washington that sits on the inauguration parade route near the White House, rooms have already gone. Several guests have spent thousands of dollars on a special four-night package that entitles them to gifts each evening, including one from Tiffany the jewellers

The Fairmont Hotel is offering an "eco-inaugural" package, which includes four nights in a suite filled with organic materials, a ball gown from an organic designer and the use of a hybrid car. It costs $40,000.

Organisers believe there will be an extraordinary surge of humanity into Washington in the days before January 20, as hundreds of thousands of African American travel from across the country to try and catch a glimpse of the historic moment.

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