NorthernLad

A good incentive to dig out my Allen Carr book.

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10182207.html

Meow

Many places are going to lose some serious custom. I walked past The Agency in Emirates Towers one evening the other week, when it should have been heaving, but there were just 2 people in there.

Fact is smokers spend money on booze etc. No smoking = less customers.

Inselaffen

sorry but thats crap. If all bars and restaurants are non-smoking then people will go to them. The Agency in Emirates Towers will only lose business whilst other bars still allow smoking.

In Ireland bars and restaurants have reported an increase in business due to the smoking ban. I for one will be looking forward to the day when i can go out for a drink and not come back stinking because of other peoples habits.

Blue Cat

met a guy in the UK, whose pal owned a chain of pubs/eateries - heading to bankruptcy. He wasn't alone

Inselaffen

In Ireland Pubs and Restaurants suffered an initial loss in trade immediately after the ban but then trade increased to levels in excess of those seen before the ban.

The pub/restaurant trade has always had a high incidence of failure. Now they can conveniently blame it on the smoking ban. I lived in Nottingham from 2005 to 2006 and there it seemed that half the pubs in the city were boarded up.

Lets face it how many people back in the UK are really going to sit at home on a Friday or Saturday night because they can't smoke in pubs? It just isn't going to happen.

Meow

No it isn't. But, hey you carry on being so stroppy


Edit> And there are a lot more smokers here, as a percentage of those who can afford to go to bars etc, than in the UK.

NorthernLad

Will smoking be banned in open air places - e.g. Irish Village, Barasti, Left Bank?

If so, enclosed bars (Agency, Scarletts, Apres etc...) may feel the effect.

Unless they improvise... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2655704.html

NorthernLad

Gala Bingos were 40% down on takings. Gutted.

Blue Cat

so was the Mecca in Shields

Inselaffen

no its ok. thats my monthly strop done and over with

Cypselos

there wasn't any drop off in numbers in the pubs i went to in london back last summer when they banned it there. you've got to be a pretty hardened human chimney to decide you'll sit at home on your own with a bottle of sherry and a pack of fags rather than go to the pub. they'll not see any sginifcant hit on trade unless it's piecemeal.

that said it's bloody interfering. i don't smoke, but i don't really give a toss if anyone else does. they pay enough tax on it in the UK. if there was a business case for non smoking pubs for all those delicate souls who didn't go out for fear of getting smokey hair they'd have existed long ago. they don't.

Inselaffen

there have been nights where I havnt gone out to the pub just for that very reason. Because I didnt want stinging eyes and to smell like the bottom of an ashtray when I got home.

Madam Medusa

oh dear...our shisha lounge probably isn't the best place for you then, lol...

MM, xx

Inselaffen

Shisha isnt bad. doesnt sting the eyes and doesnt stink like fags!

Eeyore

No, the pubs were just as full as ever when we were back over Xmas.

It's true that pubs that were teetering on the brink of failure were probably pushed over the edge by the smoking ban, but as a general rule the only downside to publicans has been that they've had to replace the carpeting in their premises, because without the fug of fag smoke to hide it, the stink of the carpets was unbearable

People just go outside for a fag now, then come back into the pub afterwards. If that means they smoke fewer fags in a typical night at the pub, so much the better for them.