The small and medium scale businesses were the biggest beneficiary, as demand for food and beverages and other amenities rose significantly due to the massive influx of people, the SLTPB said.

"This is the first time in over 20 years that all the hotels have registered 100 percent occupancy, even the small businesses with one and two rooms were fully booked up," President of the Hikkaduwa Hoteliers Association Siri Gunewardene was quoted as saying in a statement.

A number of establishments that had closed down due to a slump in recent years had opened their doors during the festival, the statement said.

Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Dileep Mudadeniya says more than 100 million rupees may have been pumped into the area if 5,000 people spent 5,000 rupees a day through the period.

He says the estimate is conservative as most eating houses ran out of food early in the morning when festivities ended each day.

The SLTBP says the beach was organised by a small group of volunteer university students coming home for their vacation, a team at Sri Lanka Tourism, the Ruhuna Tourism Bureau and with help from the Hikkaduwa Hoteliers Association, the Hikkaduwa Tourism Service Providers Association and Real Radio.

In addition, most of the communications for the event was carried out using popular social networks on the web including Facebook, YouTube and other blogs.

Sri Lanka Tourism chairman Renton de Alwis says the use of volunteers and innovative promotions helped save millions of rupees that would have been paid to an event manager.

"I think this is a significant achievement for a state institution and should be the way forward," he said.

Tourism authorities are planning a bigger beach fest with more late evening entertainment for mature audiences, with expectations of more visitors from overseas next year, particularly from India, the Maldives and other Asian countries.