IT wizards from York-based firm Agilisys are celebrating having helped to create the world's leading tourist authority website.

That is the accolade earned at the World Travel Awards ceremony in London for www.visitbritain.com.

The website faced intense competition from other nominees from Germany, Thailand, and the previous year's winner, Australia.

The awards are designed to celebrate excellence in the world's travel and tourism industry, and were presented at a ceremony in London attended by hundreds of leaders from the industry, along with an audience of thousands watching via a live webcast. More than 2.5 million voting forms were broadcast to more than 150,000 frontline agencies and 80,000 travel agencies worldwide.

The win underlines the diversity of Agilisys, which is also working on multi-million pound projects to computerise the interaction between local government and people for Hambleton and North Yorkshire councils.

Ian Griffin, head of travel and tourism at Agilisys, said: "We have worked very hard over the past year alongside the team at VisitBritain to deliver a site which we believe is world class, and we are delighted to receive this endorsement from travel professionals across the globe."

Updated: 11:18 Friday, January 14, 2005