Smoking ban can hurt tourism, says Matta
Published on: Friday, January 04, 2019
Kota Kinabalu: The Government, business owners and ordinary citizens should weigh carefully to decide if smoking bans are worth implementing or not in their respective areas, according to Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) President Datuk Tan Kok Liang. Asked to comment on the decision of both the Sabah and Sarawak governments putting on hold the nationwide smoking ban, he said: "Kota Kinabalu is the gateway for tourism in Sabah, both domestic and foreign. The city's main economic activity is tourism. Penalising premises owners by fines and imprisonment on tourists smoking is not the way forward.
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It may have serious repercussions as food operators may appear" hostile " towards tourists that chose to smoke in eateries, he said."With the implementation of the smoking ban, we can expect a drop in F&B outlets in terms of revenues."Many are in favour saying this is good for people's health. However, there are also those against the move and consider to be unfair, " he said.Meanwhile, for many smokers, smoking bans is one of the government's ways of interfering in their lifestyle.
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They find this offensive because they believe that, since smoking is not a crime, the government nor anyone else should not have a say about what they do and limit their freedom.Smoking bans aren't effective since they're merely telling people that they can't smoke in a certain location but they can in other areas.
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As a result, people just avoid places with smoking bans and smoke elsewhere, which doesn't achieve the goal of getting smokers to quit or at least reducing their tobacco consumption.Besides, implementing smoking bans also can be difficult. There are many and even establishments that don't respect the ban mainly because the penalties aren't so stiff and won't get offenders into too much trouble. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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