Hotels in Kuta violate smoke-free bylaw

In a special inspection, officials found many hotels in Kuta were still violating the bylaw on smoke-free zones by providing ashtrays and allowing their guests to smoke in their lobbies and open spaces. A team of inspectors, consisting of officials from the provincial public order office (Satpol PP), Bali Health Agency and anti-smoking advocates, conducted the raid at a number of star-rated hotels located in Kuta. Among the hotels inspected were Holiday Inn, Bali Rani, Kartika Plaza Hotel, Kuta Paradiso, Bali Dynasty Hotel, Harris Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel, Mercure Hotel and Bounty Hotel.

 The Bali smoke-free zones, enacted in November last year, are clearing the way to banning smoking across broad swathes of the island. The bylaw states that hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, places of worship, healthcare facilities and schools, among other places, are to be smoke-free areas. Anyone who smokes or provides cigarettes in the area may face three months imprisonment or a fine of Rp 50,000 (US$5.35). Ayu Rai Andayani, head of the preventive disease department at Bali Health Agency, said that all the inspected hotels had violated the bylaw on smoke-free zones.

 “They [hotel managements] still put ashtrays on tables in their lobbies. There were no signs prohibiting smoking on the walls or in other places in the hotels,” Andayani said. The team also found some tourists smoking in the smoke-free areas. “But most of the tourists said that they didn’t know about the smoke-free bylaw and there were no signs to prohibit smoking,” she added. The team finally seized the ashtrays from the hotels as evidence, and issued reprimand letters to the hotel managements.

“We have only reprimanded them as we are still disseminating the bylaw. We hope all the hotels on the island enact the bylaw soon,” she said. Previously, Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association’s Bali chapter, said he fully supported the enforcement of smoke-free zones in hotels and other tourist establishments. “Such a bylaw is crucial to improve public health. “We are more than ready to implement the bylaw in our properties,” he said. However, he also criticized government officials for not abiding by the bylaw.

 “They are still smoking in their offices. They are bad role models for the public. If we want to enact the bylaw, all of society must show their commitment,” Wijaya said. Wijaya said that many hotels, restaurants and tourist establishment had already implemented smoke-free areas and smoke-free rooms. “Guests were happy to accept the regulations,” he said.