title: The effect of smoke-free policies on hospitality industry revenues in Cyprus: an econometric approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Smoke-free policies aiming to improve quality of indoor air and significantly reduce exposure to secondhand smoke in the hospitality industry are faced with strong opposition from the tobacco industry and hospitality venue owners claiming that they lead to reductions of revenues. The objective of our study was to examine the impact of a recently introduced smoke-free legislation on the revenues of the hospitality industry in Cyprus.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anonymous information on revenues was obtained from the Cyprus government value added tax office for the entire hospitality industry in Cyprus including hotels, bars, restaurants and cafeterias between 2005 and 2011. Panel data methodology was used to examine the effect of a smoke-free legislation, on tourism, businesses' revenues adjusting for gross domestic product, inflation, unemployment rate, tourists' arrivals, seasonal variation and the economic crisis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our study showed that the implementation of the smoke-free policy did not have negative effects on the hospitality industry profitability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that even in regions with relatively high smoking rates, pro-smoking societal attitudes and weak social norms against tobacco control, and even during periods of economic crisis, smoke-free legislation does not impact negatively on hospitality industry revenues and if anything may lead to a small positive increase.
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Healthcare Management Program, Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Talias
authors.affiliation: Department of Commerce, Finance and Shipping, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Christos S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Savva
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Cyprus Institute of Biomedical Sciences (CIBS), Nicosia, Cyprus Department of Environmental Health, Environmental and Occupational Medicine and epidemiology (EOME), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Elpidoforos S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Soteriades
authors.affiliation: South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Lambros
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lazuras
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000191:economics*; D003132:Commerce; D003535:Cyprus; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007221:Industry / Q000191:economics*; D012147:Restaurants / Q000191:economics; D061845:Smoke-Free Policy / Q000191:economics*; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000191:economics*; D014195:Travel / Q000191:economics
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
keywords: Economics; Public opinion; Social marketing