Pub customers numbers up 11%
The study of 38 pubs throughout Dublin found that while staffing
levels in pubs fell by almost 9% - 129 against 118 - after the ban
was introduced in March 2004, 11% more customers visited the pubs -
from an average of 59 to 66. It also found there was a huge
reduction, 77.8%, in the number of people smoking on a visit to a
pub.
The results of the study, entitled Smoking, Occupancy and
Staffing Levels in a Selection of Dublin Pubs pre- and post- a
National Smoking Ban, Lessons For All, have been published in the
latest edition of the Irish Journal of Medical Science.
It was conducted by members of the Physics Department at
University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology, along
with Prof Luke Clancy of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free
Society.
As well as measuring the fall in pollutants in the air since the
ban, the team also visited the pubs in October 2003 and March 2004
and then revisited the venues on the corresponding time and dates
one year later.
Prof Clancy said the findings showed that warnings from
vintners' federations of plummeting customer figures and drastic
job losses were "ludicrous".
He also said arguments voiced elsewhere that a ban simply
displaced the problem elsewhere were also incorrect. "Smokers
smoked less while they were at the pubs," he said. "This shows that
the ban has been good for people and it's good for business,
despite all the predictions of disaster."
Donal O'Keeffe, of the Licensed Vintners Association, said
industry figures would have shown a drop in drink sales and a fall
in staff numbers in the first year after the smoking ban, but in
the past six months there had been "strong stabilisation and
growth" in the industry in Dublin.
He said more smoking facilities had been created and publicans
had expanded the food aspect of their business to attract
customers.
Vintners Federation of Ireland president Paul Stevenson said the
data had "no relevance" to pubs in rural areas.
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to read the original paper.