The weather forecasters were wrong again but, this time, they did the South Coast a massive Bank Holiday favour.

Forecasts for fine weather lured families to holiday resorts. But the predicted sunshine gradually gave way to cloudy conditions and rain.

Jon Weaver, Bournemouth's marketing and events manager, said: "It's been a busy weekend with hotels and guesthouses reasonably full.

"People who had booked accommodation for the weekend were already here when the weather changed but it probably did put some day-trippers off.

"Normally weather forecasters get it wrong, predicting rain here when the sun is shining. But this time it worked in our favour and the Bank Holiday weather turned out to be worse than forecast.

"We are now building up to the air festival which gets under way on Thursday and will provide a major boost to the local tourism industry. Some hotels are already booked up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday night."

Hotelier Alison Gandolfi, chairman of Bournemouth Area Hospitality Association (BAHA), said bookings had been "reasonable.

"They say the weather is going to be fine for the next few days; let's hope they have got it right. We're quite booked up for September when a lot of our regulars tend to come back."

Louise Smith, tourism assistant at Poole welcome centre, told the Daily Echo: "We were very busy on Friday and Saturday night with little accommodation left.

"The weather has been disappointing but our Bank Holiday events at Poole Park and the Quay have still been a great success."

A Swanage tourism information centre spokeswoman said: "The weather wasn't as good as we'd hoped for but our accommodation was pretty full.

"Lots of people are booking to come here this week; finding accommodation for two nights is proving difficult."

After a summer washout, forecasters are confidently predicting that summer will make a long-overdue appearance at the end of this week with Friday and Saturday seeing temperatures of up to 27C (81F).

However, if you're consoling yourself with the prospect of an Indian summer, you may well be disappointed with the familiar pattern of rain and cool temperatures set to make a return by Sunday.