According to recent research, the ‘holiday fling’ could be a serious affair and not just the bit of fun we might have thought.  Nearly one in ten British people eventually marry somebody they met on holiday and had a holiday romance with.

The survey from moneysupermarket.com discovered that those holidaymakers aged over 60 are the most likely category to find love on holiday.  One in five over 60 tied the knot with their holiday partner.

Over a third of Brits have had a holiday fling during a holiday abroad but almost half said that the relationship ended with the holiday.

The best place for romance abroad seems to be Europe with approximately a third of holiday relationships happening on a visit to Europe.  It was no surprise to find that Paris was the number one European destination for finding love abroad.  Close runners up included Majorca, Tenerife, Barcelona and Rome.

Peter Gerrard of moneysupermarket.com said:

“For all those looking for fun and love in the sun, the chances of a holiday romance look pretty good.  It seems the over-60s are hopeless romantics and it’s great to know that you are never too old to find love.”

So you never know, perhaps cheap holidays are not the best way to find love.  To search for a richer holiday romance, perhaps luxury holidays are a better bet.

Virgin Atlantic has shown increased annual profits for the financial year from 2007-2008.  It attributes the success partly to an increase in business class numbers.

The last twelve months has seen Virgin Atlantic’s premium passenger figures increase by around 22 per cent.  The airline claims it took market share from other rival airline carriers, such as British Airways.

The total number of passengers increased to 5.7 million in 2007-2008.  This was an increase of about 7.6 per cent.  In the same time period, Virgin Atlantic increased its number of worldwide flight destinations to thirty.

Locations such as Nairobi, Mauritius and Chicago were available from London Heathrow whilst flights from Gatwick to Kingston were launched.

The President of Virgin Atlantic, Sir Richard Branson, commented:

“It’s ironic that just as regulators are breaking up one monopoly – BAA – British Airways and American Airlines are trying to create another.  Our results prove that consumers want choice on transatlantic routes. Unless the regulators block the proposed BA/AA monopoly, consumers will lose out – and they’ll pay higher ticket prices for the privilege.”

The new financial year of 2008-2009 has started well for the airline as the first-quarter sales were up by around 16 per cent compared to a year earlier.

According to recent research, many pets suffer from psychological distress when they are left behind as their owners go on holiday.  This distress is known as ‘separation anxiety’.

Ferry company Stena Line has been working with Dr Roger Mugford, an animal psychologist, and using research from the RSPCA.  Their findings show that those pets left in boarding kennels, and even with family and friends, are prone to suffer mental distress.

Travellers are being urged to consider a pet friendly holiday.

A spokesperson for Stena Line said:

“We are keen to encourage the trade to educate holidaymakers on taking their pets with them and persuade them to do so…We also want to help people to ensure that their pet travels as safely as possible, so we have asked Dr Mugford to work with us to devise a set of simple travel safety guidelines.”

Dr Mugford went on to explain:

“Left in unfamiliar environments pets have been known to reach levels of depression that verge on hysteria.  The travel industry needs to educate travellers on the ‘viable alternative’ of holidaying with pets, which can be “stress-free and enjoyable for everyone.”

Many ferry companies offer onboard kennels for those travellers who wish to take their pets on holiday with them, and there are many pet friendly holidays available not only in the UK but in Europe too.

However, it does mean that those people searching for cheap holidays would have to budget for an extra little holidaymaker.

British Airways (BA) will celebrate the achievements of Britain’s gold and silver Olympic medallists when they fly home from China.  The Olympic medallists will get an upgrade on their BA flight back and there will be a special surprise for them too.  BA plans to paint the nose of the BA plane gold to celebrate the team’s Olympic achievements.

Team GB is scheduled to land back on English soil on Bank Holiday Monday, the 25th August.

According to the BBC, both gold and silver medallists will be flying back club class and the multi-gold medallists, Chris How, Rebecca Adlington and Badley Wiggins will have a special treat and will receive a return journey in first class.

To recognise their ‘startling success’, the nose of the BA plane that flies them back from Beijing will be painted gold.  British Airways Willie Walsh said:

“Team GB has led the opposition home in event after event at these golden Olympics. It is right that a gold nose cone should adorn the aircraft that brings the team home to the UK. We salute our Olympians.”

To paint the plane’s nose gold is not an easy task and was a challenge for BA’s engineering team because paint cannot, for safety reasons, be metallic.  However, British Airways has found a silicone-based gold paint that will meet safety standards.

Several destinations have been named as the up and coming hot spot places for backpackers.  Two of these are Slovakia and Morocco.

According to new research, visitors to Essouria, a coastal fishing village in Morocco, and still in the early stages of tourism, have increased by approximately 103 per cent in the last twelve months and visits to Aswan in Egypt increased by around 105 per cent in the same period.

Visits to Bratislava in Slovakia have also increased in popularity by 66 per cent and Kyoto in Japan showed an incredible 160 per cent more visitors since 2007.

Other destinations that made the up and coming destinations list included:

Puerto, Xi’an in China , Livingstone in Zambia, Iguazu in Argentina, Cascais in Portugal, Croatia’s Zagreb,  and Amman in Jordan.

Backpacking is a great way to experience travel on a shoestring budget and ideal for cheap holidays, although often favoured by the younger generation.

According to a recent study, approximately twice as many men want a Mickey Mouse-style Disneyland wedding than women do.

The Halifax conducted the survey of around 2,000 people across the UK and revealed the details of their top worldwide wedding locations.

For Europe, Disneyland Paris came in seventh place and the French Riviera came in sixth.

Halifax mentioned that they believe the current celebrity trend of having an overseas wedding has helped to encourage the public to want their own overseas wedding nuptials.

Several famous celebrity couples have chosen to marry abroad, for example, Coleen and Wayne Rooney had their wedding on the Italian Riviera.  The Italian Riviera coincidentally came third on the wedding location list.  In fourth place was Las Vegas, where Peaches Geldof and her husband recently wed.

The top wedding destination overseas was the Caribbean.

Planning a destination wedding is similar to planning a luxury holiday in many ways, although often for more people if you want a large wedding group to attend.  It is still important to get travel insurance.

The holiday industry is surprising experts in today’s economic climate as the Brits continue to book their holidays, however, it seems that travel insurance is one way they are cutting costs.

Recent research by Sainsburys shows that Brits are forgoing travel insurance in a move that could put them at serious risk.

According to the figures, around one in four Brits say that they are not taking out a travel insurance policy for this year’s holiday.  This is mainly because of the credit crunch and the need to tighten their purse strings.  2.5 million travellers say that they could not afford travel insurance because of the increased cost of living.

Certainly the cost of energy, food and petrol has increased this year and yet it has not stopped people from taking their holidays as they say it is too important for them to get away from the daily grind.

It is concerning how many people are not taking out travel insurance when they go on holiday.  It should really be regarded as an essential because in the case of an accident or problems whilst abroad, people could seriously regret not having it.

The first flight to or from the UK with inflight mobile use allowed was operated by Emirates airline.

On the 7th April, the flight service from Dubai to London Heathrow arrived.  Reportedly, one in five passengers onboard used their mobiles to make over 30 calls and to send and receive around 100 text messages.

Mobile use on flights is still banned in the UK’s airspace, however a recent fuling from the communications watchdog Ofcom is anticipated to fully authorise the use of mobiles on aircraft sometime in the near future.

The airline carrier Emirates allows passengers to use mobiles on just ten per cent of its flights at the moment and this is restricted to when planes are over 23,000 feet.

Passengers also have to keep their mobiles on silent at all times to avoid disturbing other passengers and so far it appears to have been a success and there have been no complaints from customers.

A spokesperson for Emirates, Patrick Brannelly, said:

“The cabin noise level on airliners is such that you cannot hear people making phone calls and the call quality has been so good there has been no need to shout.”

Emirates use AeroMobile technology, which works with a weaker mobile phone signal to avoid interfering with navigation equipment.  It has also been trialled with other airlines such as Qantas, Air France-KLM and Turkish Airlines.

A private bank conducted research earlier this year and found that 17 per cent, almost 20 per cent, of Brits say that they ‘live’ for their holidays.

Not only do 17 per cent of us survive for our summer break but also 21 per cent of Brits start to plan to next holiday just mere weeks after they return from their last holiday.

In fact, Brits complain that the constant juggling of family commitments, work and the increased cost of living takes its toll.  43 per cent of Brits say that they need their holiday in order to maintain their mental wellbeing.

Managing Director of private bank Cater Allen, Richard Dunn, said:

“The two week summer break has become an essential respite for hard working Britons.  But the rising cost of living and the higher price of fuel for flights means that this summer we may have to pay that little bit more for our much need rest and rehabilitation time.”

On average, we spend an average of £1,650 on our holidays each year according to the survery.

With the pound being so weak against the euro at the moment, many travellers may consider travelling to a non-European country this summer to save some money.

The German air carrier ‘Deutsche Lufthansa AG’ scrapped approximately 140 flights last week (8th August).

That makes a grand total of around 500 flights that have been cut by the airline this month.  It was forced to cut 360 flights after the regional unit CityLine’s pilot strike.

The CityLine pilots went on strike when campaigning for wage increases.  Despite focussing on Munich, flights in Hamburg and Frankfurt were also affected.

That pilot strike lasted thirty six hours and the chief executive for Lufthansa, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, said that the pilot strikes were threatening to undermine the competitiveness of the airline.

He reportedly told the Neuen Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper that the pilots were actually putting their own jobs at risk with the strike.

According to reports from the Guardian newspaper, the airline industry will be cutting around 7 per cent of flights in the lead up to Christmas.

Lufthansa is certainly not the only airline talking about flight cuts and route changes.  Other airlines, including British Airways, have also been discussing cutting flights as the increasing price of fuel and a slowing economy takes their toll.