TOURISM bosses have likened the bank holiday weekend to the Air Festival, as getting on for 200,000 people flocked to beaches in Bournemouth and Poole.

It was initially estimated that around 100,000 people would be heading to the seafront to soak up the sunshine, but with a third record day yesterday, it is thought the final figure will be closer to 200,000.

There was barely a space on the sand on the beach around Bournemouth Pier yesterday, while visitors were queueing for up to half an hour for ice creams.

There were also hoardes of people waiting for take-away fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's, while staff at Aruba were rushed off their feet, gift shops were rammed and there were even queues to use the showers dotted along the promenade.

It was much the same over in Poole, where the Sandbanks car park was reportedly full by 11am.

Pete Collett, from Bournemouth Pier, said: "I think it has been so frustrating with the weather over Easter that we are now seeing unprecedented levels of people for an early May bank holiday."

Colleague Greg MacDougall added: "It's like a typical summer's day. I haven't seen the beach like this since last year - it's nice to see."

Dan Myers, manager at Front Bike Hire on the promenade, said Sunday had been the company's busiest day since it opened around ten years ago, and Bournemouth & Poole Tourism's Jon Weaver said it had been an "absolutely amazing" weekend for both towns.

He added: "I've been in Bournemouth for quite a long time and I've never seen an early May bank holiday as busy as that - ever. It's incredible. I think it's just the build-up after Easter and the very cold winter we've had, it's 'get out as soon as you can'.

"Sandbanks has had a really good kick as well - it's right the way along the bay, it's been massive for everybody."

Mr Weaver said people had been queuing up for deckchairs at 8am yesterday, while there were still cars queueing to get into Bournemouth as far back as Blackwater Junction on the A338 at around 1.30pm.

The huge numbers of people did cause some problems on the seafront. Vendors were trying to keep up with demand for ice creams, and some toilets in Bournemouth and Boscombe were closed temporarily due to problems caused by over-usage.

Mr Weaver added: "It's just the sheer volume of people. One of the guys was saying Sunday they thought it was as busy as an Air Festival day. You're bound to get problems with that level of usage.

"But it's been great for the town and good to feel that Bournemouth and Poole, and the UK, can have warm days."

Joanne and Gavin Bolitho were visiting from Salisbury for the day with their daughter Chloe, 16. The family often visit the beach, but said they came extra early as they anticipated it would be busy.

Joanne said: "We came down at 9am, because we wanted to get a parking space. We came straight down to the beach and then had a look round the shops."

Emma Osman was visiting from Southampton with her family. She said: "It is lovely down here, but the queues are bad - there was one girl serving at the till. I expected it to be busy, but I expected for them to employ more people to serve."

Outside the town centre, Castlepoint visitors enjoyed a Dorset Living Day. Billed as a journey through locally sourced food, the free event saw cooking demonstrations outside Marks & Spencer from local chefs Luke Matthews, from the Chewton Glen, and Matt Budden, from Hilton Bournemouth.