Hotels in Spain against the ban on smoking in public places

Hotels in Spain does not agree with the decision of the Government to impose a mandatory ban on smoking in public places in 2010. According to the Hotel Federation of Spain, such a bill can seriously affect the position of the Spanish hotels on the European hotel market.

According to the authors of the bill, smoking ban will affect all Spanish restaurants and bars. To date, a bar or a restaurant is located in almost every Spanish hotel of 3 * class and above. At present, Spain has a law amended in 2006, which allows smoking in bars, the area of which does not exceed 100 square meters, as well as in restaurants, which have specially equipped rooms for this. Ministry of Health of Spain insists on amending the law, which will toughen the rules for the smoking public.

Jose Luis Guerra, a representative of the Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs of Spain, at the interview at Spanish national radio admitted that the measures which the Government intends to take, can reduce the profitability of the hotel business in Spain for at least 10%. In monetary terms this is equal to approximately 11 billion euros. According to Mr. Guerra, among the clients of Spanish hotels there are about 40% of smokers.

Year 2009 became one of the most difficult periods in the history of the hotel industry in Spain. Reduced demand for tourism worldwide affected the occupancy hotels in Spain. They showed the worst earnings yields over the past few years. Among the negative factors that influenced the development of the Spanish hotel industry was also the inclusion of Spain in the list of countries where the swine flu pandemic was recorded, so that affected the reduction of tourist flow to Iberian Peninsula.