York's tourism industry survived the effects of last week's flooding, it was revealed today.

Despite the River Ouse last week being well below its peak in the November floods, national and even international media coverage suggested the city was suffering a complete repeat of last year's events.

But Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said that though the telephone lines were "red hot" with visitors worried they may not be able to come to the city, she was not aware of any cancellations being made.

She added that people coming from afar to this weekend's Jolablot 2001 Viking Festival were concerned it might not go ahead, but following reassurances, bookings were said to be on a par with last year.

There had been fears that the city would suffer from pictures beamed out around the world last week showing York supposedly under water again.

But it turned out that media organisations were using pictures taken during the November floods and passing them off as representative of the situation last week.

Some newspapers even reported on floods in the south of the England, which were far worse than in York, yet pictured the likes of York's King's Arms under water in November.

Said Mrs Cruddas: "There were an awful lot of telephone calls to the tourist information centre. People were worried that the Viking Festival activities would be altered.

"It has caused a lot of problems as we've had to reassure people it's okay."

Mrs Cruddas said that guesthouses and hotels had reported no cancellations, but added that custom might still have been lost.

Updated: 10:24 Friday, February 16, 2001