Kerala hotels and restaurants to go smoke free

Hotel industry in Kerala is for making lives of Keralites all the more healthy by making hotels and restaurants tobacco smoke free. Major hotels and restaurants associations of the state have agreed to protect employees and customers from dangers of second-hand smoke by initiating necessary measures soon. 

Key office bearers and senior representatives of hotel associations including Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association (KHRA); South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA); South Kerala Hoteliers Forum (SKHF) and Association of Approved and Classified Hotels of Kerala (AACHK) are also united in their commitment to put up mandated signages and in preventing customers and employees from smoking in their premises. 

The Kerala hotel industry looks at the larger benefits that will accrue to public health as against the possible short-term losses from implementing smoke-free rules, Shri D Chandrasenan Nair, veteran hotel industry leader and General Convenor of South Kerala Hoteliers Forum (SKHF) has said. “By making our hotels and restaurants smoke-free, we are hopeful of attracting greater number of non-smokers including women and children.” 

Shri G Sudhiesh Kumar, State President of the 20,000-member-strong Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association said the decision to implement smoke-free rules was unanimously approved at the Annual General Meeting of the association that met at Kochi on 19 December.

“We realise that this endeavour is not easy especially in bar hotels but we are going ahead with the decision to protect non-smokers; the provisions of law will be implemented in a phased manner,” said Shri Kumar, who is also the Trivandrum District President of Kerala Bar Hotels Association. He also reiterated his association’s commitment to have COTPA mandated signages set up in all hotels and restaurants.

Shri MR Narayanan, Secretary General of South Kerala Hoteliers Forum has said that through this campaign the hotel industry wishes to communicate the message that efforts to curtail passive smoking should be taken up by all. 

Shri Mathew Thomas, senior representative of Association of Approved and Classified Hotels of Kerala (AACHK)  and Shri S Ajith Kumar, senior representative of South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA) have also expressed their commitment to the cause.