I THINK I’ll blame the BBC for the ruddy complexion currently inhabiting my cheeks.

After all, if I had known I’d be sitting out in a garden in blazing sunshine rather than sheltering from predicted heavy rainfall on Bank Holiday Monday, I would have prepared myself by slapping on a bit of lotion.

But while my face may be red from some surprise sunshine, it’s anger that’s again bringing a flush to the cheeks of tourism bosses after yet another random piece of forecasting they claim kept thousands of tourists away from the area.

Certainly the roads were quieter, but with what could be a bumper summer ahead, what guarantees can our towns have that the forecaster won’t further confuse our visitors?

In their defence, it did rain a little before making way for an afternoon of glorious sunshine.

Bournemouth’s tourism chief Mark Smith is adamant that 25,000 people gave the coast a miss on Monday alone because rain had been forecast.

At the calculation of a whopping £41 spend per person – although I’m not sure all of them would have lunched at West Beach, visited the Oceanarium, gone up in the Bournemouth Eye and had change to buy a copy of the Echo – he reckons the town missed out on around a cool million pounds.

That’s a lot of money if the experts are indeed erring on the negative side of caution.