SMOKE-FREE BAR FACT SHEET

TOURISM

The dire predictions of the tobacco industry, who forecast economic ruin for the California tourism industry when restaurants became smoke-free in 1995, have not materialized. In fact, California, with the strongest tobacco control legislation in America, remains the most visited state in the country. Tourists spent a record $55.2 billion in 1995, pumping money into the state economy at the fastest growth rate in three years. (BREATH and the California Trade and Commerce Agency, 1996)

In 1994, following the enactment of the CA Smoke-Free Workplaces Act, California’s aerospace jobs plunged by 16.4%, the computer and electronics sectors trimmed jobs by 2.8%, agriculture dipped 2.4%. In contrast, California’s tourism employment enjoyed a healthy increase of 4.6% (Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1996 - ‘State’s Tourism Grows at Its Fastest Pace in Three Years’)

In 1995, visitor spending provided jobs for more than a half a million people and added $3.1 billion to the state and local tax coffers. (California Trade and Commerce Agency, 1996)

After bars and restaurants went smoke-free, 1996 was a banner year for tourism in California. Hotel occupancy in Los Angeles and Orange counties was up over the previous year and southern Californian amusement parks entertained record summer crowds. (California Trade and Commerce Agency, 1996)

The City of Monterey passed an ordinance banning smoking in bars attached to restaurants in March 1994. Since that time, Monterey’s City Hotel Occupancy Tax Total has risen steadily each year including a whopping $1.3 million jump from $9.5 million in the fiscal year 1994-95 to $10.8 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1996. (City of Monterey, 1996)

The number of overnight visitors in San Francisco in 1996 rose 7% over the previous year, the largest increase since 1984. (San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1997)

“We have two lounges here at the Mammoth Mountain Inn. We have the Yodler Bar which holds about two to three hundred people. We also have the Dry Creek bar located at the Inn here and holds about 200 people as well. Our clientele is widely based. We have mostly skier California crowds in the winter and in the summer we have largely European guests. The Yodler went smokefree in December 1993. It was sort of a test market for us. Due to its big success that year, we voluntarily implemented a smoke-free policy in Dry Creek the following year.” (Jeff Byberg, Bar Manager Mammoth Mountain Inn, Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California, Oct.,1996)