South-west agencies Bath Travel and Tappers Travel have formally merged this week.
Tappers Travel, which has 11 agents in South Devon was sold to miniple Bath Travel in 1997 but from November 1 the £15 million business will now trade under the same name.
Bath Travel is based in Bournemouth and has 55 branches which will now grow to 66 with the merger.
Bath Travel joint managing Ddrector Stephen Bath said: “We kept the Tappers name for over a decade because it was very well known and respected in Devon. However there are sound commercial reasons for making the merger move now.
“We have a very large, rolling advertising campaign in the national media which Tappers doesn’t benefit from. And with two brands we’ve had to do our television adverts separately.”
Bath said Tappers would also benefit from being part of the independent travel agent, particularly in the range of holidays it could offer.
Tappers was established in 1963 with a single office in Newton Abbot.