A ban on smoking has cut sales in bars and pubs, according to new sector survey. The Association of Travel and Restaurant Services says that income for pubs has dropped more than predicted.

There is also a transition period of two years for bars and restaurants that have arranged the smoking areas so that tobacco smoke does not spread to smoke-free areas.

Restaurants that successfully applied for a transitional period to full no-smoking status were found to have actually increased net sales. Bars that have built the special smoking rooms have seen income fall just like those where smoking is totally banned.

In the survey, 15% of establishments said that they have cut back on staff because of the drop in sales.

(In other words, bars that still allow smoking are seeing increased sales.)

Source: Yle.fi Link

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Bars/Taverns, Europe, Job Loss, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.