Most businesses affected by the smoking ban are happy with the result, according to government sources, but at least one establishment has been hit by an $80,000 loss in trade as pub patrons went up in smoke.

Rotorua’s historic Lake House Hotel was purchased by Ian Frith and Teresa Scally more than five years ago and the couple turned the institution into a thriving little business, according to a WIN party release.

The couple undertook a plan of restoration and turned the hotel into a popular backpacker destination, but bar regulars disappeared with the advent of the smoking ban, WIN said, dropping profits for the first six months of the ban by $80 000 in contrast to the corresponding period the year before.

“The politicians who pushed for the ban assured us all that we’d see a lot more non-smokers once the ban was in place and bars were smoke-free. This might have happened for other bars, but certainly not here at the Lake House.

Earlier this month, party founder and former publican John van Buren said the anti-smoking rule had forced his Wheatsheaf Tavern into liquidation in April.

Source: National Business Review.  Link

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