in brief

Tourism deficit

Britain attracted 3% fewer overseas tourists in the year to the end of July, according to the International Passenger Survey, while 3% more UK residents took trips abroad. Overseas revenues were little different from the year before, while Britons spent 8% more abroad, deepening the trade deficit to £10.2b (from £8.3b).

Posthouse revamp

The Posthouse Manchester Airport hotel will open a Sampans Oriental restaurant and Callaghans Irish bar this autumn as part of a £10m revamp that will add more bedrooms and a conference centre. The exterior will get a new look and the ground floor will be refurbished.

Five-year plan

The London Tourist Board's (LTB's) target of adding 10,000 new hotel bedrooms in the capital in the five years to 2000 has been surpassed. London has gained 10,800 new bedrooms since 1985 and might have 11,000 by the year's end. The LTB believes it can attain its new target of 10,000 more rooms between 2001 and 2006.

Final call

There is still time to enter the Brasilia Barista of the Year competition, which closes on 15 September. For the first time the finals will be held outside the UK, at a 15th-century Italian castle, in November.

Guests flee blaze

Sixty guests fled an early morning fire in the Hannafore Point hotel in Looe, Cornwall, where smoke detectors had been installed only six months before. The fire broke out on Monday last week (4 September) at the 37-bedroom hotel.