'Luminar targets 'divorced, single and dumped' market'

If you are single, solvent and looking for love, then Stephen Thomas has a tip: go to one of his clubs. The chief executive of Luminar, the country's largest nightclub operator, has his sights on luring an older, richer clientele back to the scene of past conquests as part of his plan to lessen the group's reliance on 18-24 year-olds. The focus on the "divorced, single and dumped" market comes as Mr Thomas looks to halt the decline in like-for-like sales and restore profit growth to a business that some in the City think is in structural decline - Financial Times​

Drunks who are violent or abusive to hospital and ambulance workers in Gwynedd and Anglesey face being banned from the region's pubs and clubs. The North West Wales NHS Trust and Wales Ambulance Service Trust have become the first healthcare organisations in Wales to join a Pubwatch scheme which bars drinkers who are abusive or violent - North Wales Chronicle​

The Scottish government's plans to impose a minimum price for alcohol suffered a serious set-back after the head of the UK's consumer watchdog attacked the policy as undesirable because it would damage competition. John Fingleton, chief executive of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), said that minimum pricing would also reduce the incentives for the drinks and retail sectors to innovate and cut costs - The Times​.

Premier Inn is to launch the UK's first budget hotel based at an airport terminal under plans to open new sites across Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted. The chain, owned by Whitbread, will open four hotels at the London airports with a combined capacity of 1,570 bedrooms. The largest of the new sites is a 630 bedroom hotel that will be based at Gatwick providing guests with direct access to the North Terminal - a first for the value hotel sector - The Press Association​

The cost of hotel rooms around the world has dropped sharply according to a report based on on-line bookings through the website hotels.com. Overall the average price of a room was down 17 per cent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period of 2008. But the plunge in the value of Sterling in early 2009 has meant that British travellers have seen a more mixed picture. Once the cost of buying currency is factored in, prices in some countries rose - up 15 per cent in Istanbul and Abu Dhabi, for example, and up two per cent in Paris and Rome - The Daily Telegraph​