A YORK travel agent was flying to New York today as part of an effort to give a transatlantic morale boost to the tourism industry.

Graham Harris, of Travel Options, in Patrick Pool, was keen to take a message of hope from York residents to his American counterparts.

Mr Harris was one of 50 representatives of the travel industry flying out to the Big Apple from Heathrow, on the invitation of NYC and Company, New York's official tourism marketing agency.

The trip, which takes in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and includes a boat trip to the Statue of Liberty as well as cocktails at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, has been organised to show the travel industry that New York is open for business.

Mr Harris called it a "flight of faith" as the industry tries to recover from a downturn in trade since the September 11 atrocities and the American Airlines plane crash in the New York borough of Queens last week which killed 265 people.

He said: "It shows, firstly that we are backing Americans on a personal level, and on a professional level how could I sell America as a safe place to fly to if I wouldn't go myself?

"There's not many people going to New York, to be fair. At the moment there is about 50 per cent of the business you would expect.

"You can now get flights for £150 whereas in October, November and December traditionally you can't get accommodation because of the number of Christmas shoppers."

Mr Harris is taking copies of the Evening Press, which covered the atrocities and featured the North Yorkshire Firefighters' fundraising appeal, over to New York with him.

He said: "I'm the only person from this area going on the trip and I wanted to take them a message from old York to New York to show that we are supporting them."

Updated: 11:19 Wednesday, November 21, 2001