Enclosed spaces of restaurants are almost empty. Owners of the restaurants stated to BM.ge that due to restriction of smoking majority of visitors don’t go to closed restaurants, preferring to be served in open-air spaces.
Kote Gabrichidse, one of the founders of the Association of Restaurants, states that the business has lost customers, as well as incomes. According to him, the law could not lead to health improvement of the society, because those who smoked two months ago still smoke; and the business lost about 20-25% of customers.
In case of Tiflisi Restaurant the loss is far bigger. The director of hosting facilities, Dimitri Melikidze, says that the number of customers and incomes have reduced to half. Nobody goes to the closed hall of the restaurant and the majority of visitors moved to open spaces.
According to the Ministry of Interior of Georgia, total 135 fines were registered during two months. 31 of them were imposed on physical persons, 104 – on legal entities.
Just to remind you, based on the amendments made to the Law on Tobacco Control, smoking tobacco in closed buildings was forbidden as from the 1stof May.
