RIDGEFIELD, CT -- (Marketwire) -- 09/29/08 -- Readers of ProMedia.travel's The Beat selected Continental Airlines as their most admired airline and also 2008 Supplier of the Year in a survey conducted this month and presented at The Beat Live, a travel business conference launched last week in Cleveland.

The Beat also presented 2008 Readers' Choice awards to American Express for most admired payment system; Hertz for most admired car rental company; Marriott International for most admired hotel company; Concur as most admired technology provider; and Carlson Wagonlit Travel as the most admired travel management company.

The Beat founder and ProMedia.travel chief content officer Jay Campbell and ProMedia.travel president and CEO Tim Reid announced the survey results at a closing lunch during The Beat Live. Polled between Sept. 2 and Sept. 13, readers of The Beat were asked which company in each of the six supplier segments they "most admire for its policies, management style and service for business clients." The Beat disqualified votes from those who voted for their own employer.

Also at the two-day conference, The Beat released results of an exclusive Election '08 poll that found more support for Barack Obama than John McCain. Of 436 readers who answered an online poll between Sept. 2 and Sept. 13, 44 percent said they planned to vote for the Obama-Joe Biden ticket while 34 percent planned to vote for McCain and Sarah Palin. Two readers said they would vote for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr while none showed support for independent Ralph Nader. The rest of those polled said they were unsure or not planning to vote.

Readers also shared their thoughts on the importance of a range of travel-industry specific issues. Of 343 readers who responded to the poll, 89 percent described energy policy as most important, the highest number for any of six issues that also included transportation infrastructure (including air traffic control and Federal Aviation Administration funding), which was deemed very important by 62 percent.

Airport and border security was seen as very important by 60 percent of respondents. Offshoring jobs was ranked a very important topic in this election by 39 percent of respondents, while 45 percent said it was somewhat important.

On the issue of promoting inbound travel to the United States, on which the House approved a bill last week, 27 percent of respondents ranked the topic very important; however, 23 percent said it was not important, the highest level of non-support among the six topics.