TOURISM chiefs in York are celebrating their busiest ever half-term week - despite hundreds of American and European visitors staying away from the city.

Last week was described as buoyant throughout, with the York Tourist Information Centre inundated with visitors and telephone inquiries.

But according to Della Rhodes, manager of the centre in St Leonard's Place, few Americans and Europeans had made the journey to York.

She said: "The week was a lot busier than we had expected and on the Saturday before half-term we ran out of rooms completely.

"The week as a whole was just very buoyant - the city was near full.

"It was better and busier than the October half-term last year.

"But we are not getting any Americans in and there is a significant decrease in European visitors as well.

"There seems to have been a slowdown in overseas travel generally since the terrorist attacks of September 11." Kay Hyde, public relations manager at the York Tourism Bureau, said the bureau had launched an aggressive marketing campaign to attract British visitors to the city - a move which was already bearing fruit.

She said: "Half-term is traditionally a busy time but it was the busiest one that we have ever seen.

"There was a general feeling that people were probably looking to book a last-minute break in Britain as opposed to going abroad, because at the moment people feel that they should stay at home.

"How long that will last is debatable. It's amazing how quickly people lose their nervousness."

Miss Hyde said that there were signs that Americans and Europeans would be returning to York soon. She said: "We have definitely lost our American business and some European business and we won't know the long-term effects of that for some time.

"But we are getting inquiries from individuals and coach companies so we are hoping that the loss will only be short-term."

There have been fears that day visitors could be put off coming back to York because of traffic problems caused by roadworks.

Peter Evely, head of highway regulation at City of York Council, said the situation last week was better than expected.

He said: "Even though last week was exceedingly busy in the city, with car parks full, lots of people and therefore more vehicles moving around, the peak hours were better because the school run wasn't there."

Updated: 15:49 Monday, October 29, 2001