Independent travel agent Miles Morgan Travel has been acquired by Hays Travel for an undisclosed sum.

Miles Morgan Travel has 19 outlets in the South West and South Wales, including those in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Cirencester, Nailsworth and Stroud.

Hays Travel, which now has approaching 500 branches in its estate, says it has no plans to rebrand the 19 Miles Morgan Travel outlets, reports Travel Weekly.

The agency has been a member of the Hays Travel Independence Group consortium since 2006.

Miles Morgan said it had been "a difficult decision" and there was an element of sadness that his travel journey had come to an end.

The final part of that journey had been to find a suitable new owner for Miles Morgan Travel, he said.

Having worked for six years directly alongside the team at Hays Travel, he said he couldn't think of a better place for his business to go.

He said all jobs were safe, and the team now had more opportunities for career progression with little disruption to day-to-day activity.

Miles paid tribute to his senior management team and the staff who delivered the best year in the firm's history in the last financial year.

Hays Travel chair Dame Irene Hays described Miles Morgan as "a legend in travel" and he and his brilliant team had created an exceptional business that they could be very proud of.

She said they would always be grateful to Miles, who as a member of our group's board for many years had been instrumental in Hays Travel's growth and success.

Dame Irene said they were all excited about this latest acquisition and looked forward to welcoming the Miles Morgan Travel team to the Hays Travel family and learning from each other.

Hays Travel, which has a branch on Cheltenham's High Street, made pre-tax profits of £51.6m in the year to April 30th 2023 - a stark rise on the figure of £14.4m in 2021/22.

In 2019 the firm acquired a lease to operate the former Thomas Cook 555 shops, providing re-employment opportunities to 2,500 staff who had been made redundant following its collapse.

Another year later, Hays Travel took over all 20 Tailor Made Travel shops as well as retaining around 100 employees.