diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3f2548ef..8b5c3e39 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 ################################################################################
 
 *.pyc
+.eggs/
+.python-version
 
 /GithubCredentials.py
 /scripts/TwitterCredentials.py
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 0550534c..db6c6d1f 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 language: python
 python:
-- '2.7'
 - '2.6'
+- '2.7'
 - '3.2'
 - '3.3'
 - '3.4'
diff --git a/github/MainClass.py b/github/MainClass.py
index 024f0a46..b436bb95 100644
--- a/github/MainClass.py
+++ b/github/MainClass.py
@@ -633,12 +633,17 @@ class GithubIntegration(object):
             "exp": now + 60,
             "iss": self.integration_id
         }
-        return jwt.encode(
+        encrypted = jwt.encode(
             payload,
             key=self.private_key,
             algorithm="RS256"
         )
 
+        if atLeastPython3:
+            encrypted = encrypted.decode('utf-8')
+
+        return encrypted
+
     def get_access_token(self, installation_id, user_id=None):
         """
         Get an access token for the given installation id.
@@ -689,4 +694,4 @@ class GithubIntegration(object):
         raise GithubException.GithubException(
             status=response.status,
             data=response_text
-        )
\ No newline at end of file
+        )