No smoking in the hotel and restaurant industry: 10 million euros in fines | inside

"If we remember ten years of implementation, we should not be unhappy, but we can not back off," says Rob Hageman of the Dutch Food and Food Safety Authority. consumption (19659002). 1 July 2008 were fined more than 10 million euros in total, according to figures from the NVWA. More than 20,500 fines and warnings were issued during this period. For small pubs, an exception was first made to the smoking ban, but that ended in 2014. "In recent years, we have also found that respect for small cafes has The standard that the catering industry is smoke-free seems to be more and more integrated, "explains Hageman

.The ban has led in particular to fierce protests from Pub bosses in the early years. "Especially the initial period was very uncomfortable. Not only hospitality entrepreneurs oppose the ban, including consumers, "says a spokesman for Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN).

Strict rules

The fuss over the smoking policy is not over yet. If it depends on Secretary of State Paul Blokhuis (Public Health), there will be even stricter rules to ban smoking. For example, he wants separate smoking areas in food service establishments to disappear in the next two years. He spoke about it for the first time last month with the KHN Branch Association. According to Blokhuis, it is also "inevitable" that smoking is banned on the terrace.

But according to KHN, the ban on smoking areas will cost a lot of money to the restaurant industry. The intention also to ban smoking on the terrace is called KHN "condescending at its best."

Your Wurtz Foundation for the Interests of Smokers also does not understand these measures. "You do not have to sit in a smoking room as a non-smoker? And if you suffer from a smoker next to you on the terrace, you ask him to sit down A little further on? The hotel industry has lost some of its hospitality.A sad thing we are going this way. "