BOURNEMOUTH’S successful Christmas Tree Wonderland was “fantastic” but did little to boost the retail trade, the boss of Beales has claimed.

Organisers say almost a million people enjoyed a walk through the spectacular trail of illuminated trees in the town’s gardens.

However, Beales chief executive Tony Brown says more events are needed to boost shopping in the daytime.

Bournemouth Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID), which was behind the wonderland, says it agrees that more daytime events are needed and it is laying plans for them this year.

Mr Brown revealed earlier this week that whereas Poole was among Beales’ best-performing stores at Christmas, the flagship Bournemouth branch was among the worst.

“The Christmas Tree Wonderland was fantastic but it’s a night time event. It seems that everything that we’ve done this year has been to encourage tourism and the night time economy,” he said.

“We’ve done very little to encourage the daytime economy, which is disappointing.

“I applaud the initiative that’s going on at the moment but my feeling is we’ve left retail behind on many fronts to concentrate on tourism and the night time economy.

“It’s all right getting a 40 per cent increase in footfall but if that footfall’s at night, it doesn’t benefit retail at all. They come for the spectacular, they don’t come for shopping.”

He added: “Some of the characters that came in – the Frozen characters, polar bears, all that sort of stuff – need to be there during the day.

“We need to have a lot more events during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, and also encourage people to come from the gardens through to the streets.”

Paul Kinvig, the Town Centre BID’s chief operating officer, said footfall had been up during the days, but he agreed with the call for more daytime events.

“There are a number of businesses we’ve been talking to who said ‘We did really well,” he said.

“Bournemouth is looking to do events during the day in order to further boost footfall to help retailers.

“One of the core strategies of the BID is to say ‘How can we help retailers?’

“It’s a real focus for the BID.”