IT seems the chilly Easter temperatures didn’t keep the tourists away this bank holiday – despite fears of a quiet start to the season.

Hotel and tourism bosses last week predicted plenty of vacancies in the conurbation’s hotels, due to the unseasonably cold weather.

But Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch town centres were all reported to be busy, with tourism offices reporting a number of enquiries for accommodation and other activities throughout the weekend. A sunny Easter Sunday certainly helped to boost visitor numbers.

A Bournemouth Tourism spokesman said the NASUWT conference at the BIC had meant a large number of hotel rooms were block-booked.

But he added the spells of sunshine had been a welcome bonus for the weekend.

He said: “It’s been fairly brisk. The weather hasn’t exactly helped, but there are worse parts of the country to be in.

“We still had the sunshine. If it had been raining it would have had more of an impact.

“But it’s been better than we thought because of the sunshine. All things considered we think we’ve done okay, but the conference really did help.”

Becky Knight, manager of the Welcome Centre at Poole, said the weather had been better than expected.

She added: “Friday and Sat-urday we were particularly busy with accommodation enquiries and the quay was busy with people in the pubs.

“The weather doesn’t look as nice today, but it’s been busier than we expected.

“Friday and Saturday when it wasn’t raining had families looking for accommodation and lots of couples looking for B&Bs.

“As long as it’s dry people have been going over to Brownsea Island and to Sandbanks.”

A spokesman for Christchurch Information Centre, said the town centre there had been busy despite the cold weather.

She added: “It was very busy on Saturday and town is still busy.

“We’ve had enquiries not necessarily for accommodation, but for other things.

“When you’ve got a bit of sunny weather people just wrap up and get out there.”

She said Monday’s market had led to the town being busy again.