Scots backing smoking ban

Related tags Smoking ban Inn Public house Scotland

Seven out of 10 pub-goers in Scotland agree with the smoking ban in pubs, according to new research conducted for The Publican one month into the...

Seven out of 10 pub-goers in Scotland agree with the smoking ban in pubs, according to new research conducted for The Publican one month into the ban. And six out of 10 customers say they are now more likely to eat in the pub now that smoking is outlawed.

Concerns that people would avoid pubs in droves when the ban came in seem premature as more than half of people polled claimed their pub habits were unchanged since the ban was introduced on March 26.

One in four pub-goers say they like the smoke-free environment and will go the pub more often - but one out of five is less likely to go.

The survey of 100 pub-goers in the country was conducted by marketpublic.com on behalf of The Publican.

Reports a month after the ban came into force indicate that many publicans have been weathering the storm well. The Fluke Inn in Inverness has seen no change since the introduction of the smoke ban, in either turnover or customer numbers.

Assistant manager Paul Douglas said: "We are unaffected. Our targets were set before the ban and we are still hitting our targets. We have a large outside area where people can smoke."

Fay Horrocks, licensee of the Rose and Crown, Edinburgh, said: "We aren't doing too bad and our food take has gone up. We are getting a wider variety of people coming in for food. We are seeing a bigger turnover of families. Non-food pubs are the ones which are struggling."

JD Wetherspoon - which has 38 pubs in Scotland - also said it had not noticed a large drop in sales in its pubs since the ban came in.

Cigarette giant Imperial Tobacco said this week it had not seen any drop in sales in Scotland.

The marketpublic.com findings