Chloe Rutherford, 17 of Westoe Travel and Liam Curry, 19 were confirmed to have died following a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena on Monday which claimed the lives of 22 people.
The pair from South Shields were reported missing following a concert by the US singer Ariana Grande at the venue they had been attending.
Homeworker Ken Garrity of Ken Garrity Travel and Jill Waite of Pole Travel have now created a JustGiving fundraising page and hope to raise £10,000 for the teenagers’ families.
Garrity said he had decided to launch the page to help ease the pressure on friend and Westoe Travel owner, Graeme Brett.
“It’s just an absolute tragedy and we all still can’t believe what’s happened. I had come back from the US on Monday, turned the television and couldn’t understand what I was seeing," he said.
“When I woke up this morning and saw the news about Chloe I asked Graeme if there was anything we could do as they’re having to deal with so much at the moment.”
Garrity, who is based in Altrincham, said he had spoken to Rutherford when calling the Westoe office.
“From what we know of her she was a lovely girl who was always smiling and was loved by everyone at Westoe. We just wanted to do something to help Graeme, the team and Chloe and Liam’s families.”
“People in our industry our incredibly generous and travel does feel like a little village it’s so close so we’d love it if everyone rallied round and just gave what they can.”
Waite added: “It’s just unbelievable what happened. In Manchester we’re all close and everyone seems to know somebody who was there on Monday. It’s so close to home.
"It’s about doing whatever we can to help even in a small way and hopefully the industry can get behind it."
