YORK'S tourist trade enjoyed a welcome boost at the weekend, as crowds flocked to the city in two days of unusually hot autumn weather.

The York Tourism Bureau was unable to place 60 bookings in hotels and guest houses in the city during a bumper weekend.

The bureau's chief executive, Gillian Cruddas, said that although Saturdays were often busy it was particularly unusual not to be able to place people.

She said the bumper weekend had come as a welcome boost following a mixed season so far.

"The season got off to a good start but since then it has been erratic, and August was disappointing. It is very reassuring that we are having a late summer surge," she said.

The general manager of the York Dungeon, Helen Douglas, said: "We had a better-than-expected weekend. We did not beat last year, which was a record year, but we were up on 2000."

A spokeswoman for the Jorvik Viking Centre said: "We did find it was particularly busy for this time of year."

The owner of The Grange Hotel, Jeremy Cassle, said the hotel had been fully booked on Friday and Saturday.

The officer manager at the Pavilion Hotel, Jackie Richmond, said the hotel had also been fully booked over the weekend.

Updated: 14:35 Monday, September 30, 2002