© srboisvert

Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK is famous for being the birthplace of Shakespeare, and the town is a popular travel destination for its winning combination of culture, heritage and beauty. The town is recognized among the top destinations in the UK according to the travel website TripAdvisor, which ranks it sixth overall in the country. London tops the list, followed by Edinburgh, Bath, Cambridge and Oxford.

Tourism to Stratford brings in big revenues for the midlands region, with nearly 5 million trips to the district in 2009 generating around 335 million pounds for the local economy and supporting over 8,000 jobs. The rankings on TripAdvisor are based on votes of actual travelers for their favorite and most visited destinations. Rounding out the top ten on the list were the cities of York, Inverness, St. Andrews and Liverpool.

© Augapfel

United Continental Holdings wants its airlines union flight attendants to work together so it doesn't have to furlough any of them next year.
United has too many flight attendants and Continental Airlines will have too few after it adds more planes to its fleet next year. On Thursday, United Continental Holdings, the parent company of the two carriers airlines, asked these employees to help develop a crossover hiring program.

Chicago-based United and Houston-based Continental merged on Oct. 1 but must wait to receive a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration before they can operate as one carrier airlines.
And to fully merge, the airlines' labor groups must combine – including the flight attendants, who are represented by separate unions.

As online booking sites soared in popularity, travel agents became the butt of jokes. But the travel agents are once again in demand as travelers are starting to need vacations from planning their vacations. In an American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) survey, 44 percent of travel agents said that they had more clients than they'd had the previous year, with the strongest rebound in rail and hotel reservations.

More than half of all respondents of the American Express Spending & Savings Tracker survey said they are planning a summer vacation. Among the affluent and young professionals, the numbers planning vacations are even higher. For travel agents, this is good news. When it comes to vacation planning, more than a third said they are turning to offline resources, including travel agents, for planning and booking.

© mikecogh