TOURISM chiefs say gloomy weather dashed hopes of a bumper year for the industry.

With credit crunch biting more families than ever were expected to holiday in the UK, and Bournemouth and Poole were anticipating a busy summer.

But according to the towns' tourism leaders visitor numbers were similar to last year - but with increasing costs hitting profit margins many in the business have been feeling the pinch.

Bad weather has been blamed for the lacklustre season. Dave Wiseman, of weatherwise.co.uk, said it was the area's "dullest August for the last 50 years," with "an extremely low amount of sunshine."

Graham Richardson, Poole Tourism manager, said: "We've had a number of factors in our favour - high fuel prices, the strength of the Euro against the pound, the credit crunch - people were expected to holiday at home. Things were quite good for us in that sense, but the weather has played a major part."

He said an early Easter and wet bank holiday weekends had also taken their toll.

He added: "Overall it's been a mixed year. Hopefully next year the weather will turn out and we will be able to go back to strength.

"We've certainly not had any growth over the last year.

"Operators have not increased revenue levels, but costs going up and their margins are reduced. It's a pretty difficult time for them all."

Mark Smith, Bournemouth Tourism director, agreed visitor numbers were on a par with last year. Poor weather had hit last-minute bookings.

"If the weather had been better they would have come down in fairly large numbers," he added.

"I think it could have been a record year with decent weather. To hold our own with poor weather shows the strength of what we have in the area.

But last weekend's air festival was a welcome high spot for the industry.

"We were looking at over three-quarters of a million people visiting - it was massive," added Mr Smith. "There wasn't a room to be had in the area on the Saturday night."

Alison Gandolfi, of The Balin Court Hotel, and chairman of Bournemouth Area Hospitality Association, agreed: "Generally the summer was quite disappointing weather, wise which of course had an impact on visitor numbers, but the air festival was the light at the end of the tunnel."