Dartmouth failed to cash in on the Olympic flame. It cannot afford to do the same with the huge cycle race roadshow in September, the town's business have been warned.

Thousands of people poured into Dartmouth to watch as the Olympic flame, and the razzmatazz convoy that went with it, come through the town last Sunday.

But once the torch left – so did the crowds, Dartmouth Business Forum chairman Paul Reach said.

Even tiny Torcross did a better job of it than Dartmouth, he claimed.

He warned that the town would have to do a lot better when the 2012 Tour of Britain cycle race arrives on Saturday, September 15 – along with the tens of thousands of supporters and visitors due to arrive with it. And in between the town is hosting the prestigious J80 World sailing Championships in June when the town will be in the world spotlight yet again.

'The town is going to have to do a little better to take advantage of these events,' said Mr reach.

'When the torch came to Dartmouth for 30 minutes the eyes of the world were on Dartmouth,' he said.

'It was a great day and a fabulous event and thousands of people came into the town. But after the torch had gone everybody dispersed.

'Even Torcross still had events going on into the afternoon.

'They had got it together, worked as a team and made a real day of it and we could have done that.'

He pointed to the huge cycle race leg which ends in Dartmouth and the sailing champions and said: 'These are global events. We have to work out how we as a town can organise better.'

Mr Reach was speaking to a meeting of the town's business forum where local county councillor Jonathan Hawkins also pointed out that the town had failed to get the maximum publicity out of the torch event.

He said there were no prominent banners on show so that TV viewers would know exactly what town they were looking at and he added: 'I don't think any of us realised just how big that event was going to be and perhaps that was a mistake for us.'

He said that when the cycle race completed a leg in Exmouth it attracted more than 20,000 people into the town on just one day. He said that if that happens in Dartmouth it will be like the regatta Saturday, the Red Arrows and a royal visit all rolled into one.

'It's going to be a huge day,' he said.

He said there were already proposals to operate the park and ride at Dartmouth as if it was town regatta week and there are plans to set up a Kingswear park and ride to cope with people pouring in from The Bay.

'We need to organise so we get all these people to stay in the town – use the restaurants and other businesses, perhaps stay for the weekend in our B and Bs.'

He said the town should be looking at organising events in the bandstand and even staging a farmers' market on the day.

'We want people to spend their money in the town,' he added.