Restaurants, hotels do not prefer smoking areas

Hyderabad: More and more restaurants and hotels in the country are opting out of having Designated Smoking Areas (DSA) within their premises. Such facilities that do not permit smoking areas are ending-up attracting more customers and business, the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) in a press release said. A recent study conducted in eight […]

Hyderabad: More and more restaurants and hotels in the country are opting out of having Designated Smoking Areas (DSA) within their premises. Such facilities that do not permit smoking areas are ending-up attracting more customers and business, the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) in a press release said.

A recent study conducted in eight Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai by Institute of Global Tobacco Control at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to assess prevalence of DSAs in hospitality venues, said that hotels and restaurants do not prefer DSAs anymore.

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The survey covered about 3,243 hospitality venues consisting of bars, hotels and restaurants in the eight cities out of which only 120 venues had DSAs. The changing mind-set is to attract families with children and senior citizens who prefer to no-smoking zones, the press release said.

“Families prefer restaurants and hotels which do not allow smoking. Many members of our association have voluntarily decided to become 100 per cent smoke-free, and we are motivating others to follow. We want Telangana to be the model state in making all restaurants and hotels in 100 per cent smoke free,” says MS Nagaraju, chairman, Telangana State Hotels Association.

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