The Spanish Hotel and Catering Federation (FEHR) have spoken out against the smoking ban planned by the government in all establishments across Spain.They are claiming that there will be a loss of revenue in all establishments and that many will be forced out of business.They also say that up to 50% of customers associate bars and restaurants with smoking.

They are using this to say that in restaurants sales would drop by 7%,in bars by 15% and that in nightclubs the losses would be even greater.They cite examples in Ireland where they say between 2003 and2007 the country saw the closure of 8.5% of its restaurants and 24% of its bars.This was according to stats from the Central statistics Office in Ireland.

They go on to use the economic climate of the country to say that this could not come at a worse time with the industry already reeling from the recession.In the last 2 years they have seen revenue drop by 14%.In particular they say that small family bars and cafes would suffer the most from such a ban.

Today in the UK, the government announced new proposales to limit the sale of tobacco including measures to restrict the advertising in newsagents and even limiting packaging to plain wrappers.

Editorial

As a smoker, you have to stop yourself laughing at the reports on what this government has come up with to reduce the numbers of people smoking tobacco. The fact is, the government doesn’t want smokers to quit….they want the tax revenue too much. So they trot out a laughable package of measure ‘to show how much they care’ knowing full well that none of these measures will have anything but a marginal affect on smoking numbers.

If they wanted to get people off tobacco they would be looking at the electronic cigarette technology that is currently available on the market and ways of improving the labelling of ingredients in the refill cartridges so that cheap imports from China dont contain things that they shouldn’t…we all remember the milk and childrens toys!!

There is currently only one supplier that provides independently verified ingredients by manufacturing their refills in an FDA, (Food & drug Administration) registered laboratory. Inlife LLC, a Californian based company who recently launched its Marquee & Elite electronic cigarettes into the UK are a Network Marketing company that allows individuals to build a part time, or full time income as a distributor marketing  the electronic cigarette.

Inlife are currently working on opening their products to the Spanish market, so there may be some relief for hotels bars and restaurants through the ability to market Inlife electronic cigarettes to their smoking customers

Information about Inlife and electronic cigarettes in the UK - Click here

Enquiries in Spain should contact Neil Ebsworth at neil@myinlife.co.uk ( Tel: 00 34 96 649 2327)