Tough smoking laws Impacting Tourism

The Tourism Bureau of Taiwan said it would coordinate establishing smoking rooms at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. This was after a Japanese Tourism Association complained that the strict smoking ban kept Japanese tourist away.

The airport did create two outdoor smoking terraces in January after complaints, and considered setting up indoor smoking rooms with air filtering equipment. Liu His-lin, chief secretary of the bureau said this could not be accomplished unit legal issues were resolved. The previous plan to set up nine indoor smoking rooms also was aborted after anti-smoking groups said it violated the act.


There are many smokers in Japan and according to report by travel agents and related industries, the Japaneese may have decided not to visit due to the strict anti-smoking laws. Since Japan is one of the main sources of visitors, Liu bureau being a government agency is in charge of local tourism promotion has a responsibility to coordinate and help resolve this issue.

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