BOURNEMOUTH businesses benefited from a big boost from the weekend’s air festival, say industry chiefs.

Organisers confirmed that 1.2million people descended on the town over the four days of the event, which ran from Thursday until Sunday, with Saturday setting a record for the event, with 448,000 visitors.

See all our pictures from the Air Festival in our galleries

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Mark Smith, Bournemouth’s director of tourism, said: “The idea of big events is to make the town really busy, no matter what the weather.

“Forty years ago the hotels would be booked up regardless, but nowadays if you’ve not got something special to offer, if the weather is good you will have full hotels, but if the weather is not good there will be spare bedrooms.

“The big events like the Wheels Festival and the Bournemouth Air Festival are designed to take the weather out of it.

“If you think that the air festival started in the middle of the recession, it was bold of the council and the town to get behind it.

“The formula of doing it free is quite unique as well. The idea of doing an event that’s free to access once they’ve parked or stayed in a hotel, they can just enjoy the event.

“We’ve found that the evening programme has had an added interest from a business point of view, talking to the hoteliers, they’ve put on more events in the evenings.

“When we talk about it being worth £30million to the economy and what does that mean, in the hospitality industry roughly a third of the money goes into jobs, which are for people living here.

“That £10million that goes on local employment gets re-spent in the town, in shops and restaurants and so on. This is something that’s consumed by local people as well as tourists.

“We’re not chasing numbers any more with this event.

“To get an event that attracts one million people with good weather is just the icing on the cake.”

Mr Smith said that 75 per cent of the costs of the event were recovered.

He added: “Proportionally, the bigger events cost less than the smaller events, because you cannot get the same level of trade interest.”

The council says that around 500 full-time jobs are supported by the air festival.

Paul Clarke, chairman of Bournemouth Accommodation and Hotel Association, told the Echo yesterday: “Judging by what I saw over the weekend, the hotels on the East Cliff were over-capacity and there was huge demand.

“There was a feel-good factor around the hotels. People are already booking for next year.

“It’s an event that is getting bigger and better every year. The main thing that the hotels benefit from is the hospitality, with local companies using them.

“The Wheels Festival is also going to make a big difference.

“All these different events give people reasons to come to the hotels.”

See all our coverage, videos, pictures and more at www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/air