In truth, many businesses were bracing themselves for the opposite, fearing that trade would plummet in the wake of the economic downturn. But the verdict of hotelier Marc Decoussemaeker-Dhooge sums up the mood: “It´s been an absolutely great summer.”

One of the reasons, of course, was the soaring temperature which meant that record numbers of people, including Dutch and Germans, flocked to the coast during July, August and well into September.

That spelt good news for people like Marc who, with his wife Anne-Marie and son Thierry, runs a complex of 54 self-catering bungalows and studios amid 25,000 square metres of private dunes at Sint-Idesbald.

“We enjoyed days of excellent weather,” says Marc. “A couple of weeks ago I was on a Mediterranean cruise. It was raining and Thierry told me to get back to the Belgian coast where the weather was glorious!”

Business has boomed, he says, partly as a side-effect of the recession. “I think it´s true to say that more Belgians have been staying at home this year instead of taking foreign holidays and that´s obviously been good for us”, says Marc. “I feared the economic crisis would really hurt, but the weather saved us. We´ve been getting visitors from everywhere, with the exception of the Brits who still pass us by on the way to the south of France.”

It´s been a good summer, too, for local attractions like the ever-popular Plopsaland at De Panne, whose press officer Filip Loos says, “We have done very, very well this season. For the first time, we had more than one million visitors, including 500,000 in July and August.”

The company runs similar parks at Hasselt and in the Ardennes, which have had 300,000 and 400,000 visitors respectively. Other local places of interest, such as the Abbey Museum Ten Duinen in Koksijde and the National Fisheries Museum in Oostduinkerke, have enjoyed similar success.

The Fishery Museum boasts some splendid displays that tell the fascinating story of fishing on the Flemish coast. Ann Legein, from the museum, said that while up-to-date data is currently unavailable, the museum has seen no shortage of visitors. “You might have thought we would have suffered with all the good weather, but that´s not been the case at all,” she said.

Danny Olislagers, who runs the Seastar boat tour company at Nieuwpoort, says it´s been one of the best summers he can remember. “We have carried 120,000 passengers so far”.

Heidi Vandenbussche, a press officer with the Flemish tourist office, estimates that upwards of 600,000 people were visiting the coast on any given day during the summer. Data is still being compiled, but she is confident that this year will top the 2008 figures, when some 16.4m tourists visited the coast as day trippers and 5.1m stayed overnight.

Her comments are echoed by Dirk Marteel, communications officer at Westtoer, who says, “The weather has an important impact on the success of the Belgian coast as a holiday destination. But it also has other important treasures which inspire tourists, such as its gastronomy, culture and recreation. There is also an increase in impulse holidays and health and well-being visits. I think most are pleasantly surprised by how good it´s been. Now, fingers crossed for a repeat in 2010.”

www.dekust.org

* Most frequent visitors to the coast are Belgians, followed by Dutch, Germans, French and British.

* About 18.3 m day visitors have visited the coast this year, 6m of them last summer.

* More people are taking short breaks, and the number of longer, overnight stays has fallen.

* The average time spent in hotels, B&Bs and holiday houses in July and August was 7.5 nights.

* People spend an average of 2.6 nights in hotels and 11.6 nights in holiday homes.

* Average net hotel occupancy rates in July were 73%, rising to 82% in August.

* In 2008, 2.8 million people spent a total of 17.2m overnight stays in second homes at the coast.

* At peak times, there were 600,000 tourists, excluding local residents, at the coast this summer, including 250,000 day visitors.

* About 32% of tourists’ expenditure at the coast is spent in the two summer months.