A HIGH-FLYING travel company with branches in Radcliffe, Bury and Prestwich has booked itself a top national award.

PR World Travel lifted the coveted "innovation and technology in travel and tourism" accolade at the Travel Weekly Tourism Awards, the biggest event in the industry's calendar.

The award is a tribute to the company's use of e-commerce, which has added a significant new dimension to its day-to-day operations.

More than 1,500 guests attended the "black tie" awards function in London, hosted by TV personality Mary Nightingale.

PR World Travel won its competition category after being shortlisted from a selection of 3,000 independent travel agents.

The company's developments over the past 18 months have included setting up their holidaydeals.com website, a full intranet system between all the branches and staff, screens in all branches showing latest offers and slideshows, and free Internet access for clients to view travel-related sites. Peter Hardman and Robert Cox, partners in the company, received the award on the night.

It is the second major hi-tech award which PR World Travel has won.

Last year the company, with branches in Water Street, Radcliffe, Market Street, Bury, and Bury New Road in Prestwich, emerged as runners-up in the "success through e-business" category at the Bolton and Bury Business Awards.

Since 1999, the company has had a presence on the Internet where potential customers can browse through more than 100,000 offers from 150 operators.

During the main holiday booking months, PR World Travel's website receives a staggering 4,500 "hits" a day.

The Radcliffe branch now has a dedicated computer, linked to its website, which customers can use in a booth. This service will be extended to its two other shops.

Commenting on the latest award, Peter said: "This is the biggest we have won and it has put our business on the map in the travel world.

"We would like to thank all the staff for their hard work and our clients, who have supported us over the last ten years."

He added: "What we are doing is adopting these sorts of technical advances. But we haven't lost the personal touch and certainly aren't fully automated, robotic, computer clerks.

"The reason why we won this award was really down to a combination of all these things we've set up during the last 18 months to increase awareness of our business."

Robert said: "It has given us even more pleasure as this is our tenth anniversary and this award will be given pride of place in our Radcliffe branch, the first shop we opened in 1991."