OSLO, Jan 31 (AFP) - Fewer bars and restaurants filed for bankruptcy in Norway last year, despite fears that a new nationwide ban on smoking in all public places would harm the industry, media reported on Monday.
According to statistics from Norway's bankruptcy register, quoted by news agency NTB, 372 bars and restaurants were forced to shut their doors for good last year, compared to the 386 bar and restaurant bankruptcies filed in 2003.
The drop comes despite the new nationwide ban on smoking in all public places that went into effect on June 1 last year, and which many bar and restaurant owners predicted would deal a deathblow to many industry players.
Some critics went so far as to call Norway's health minister at the time, Dagfinn Hoeybraaten, a "Taliban", but he pooh-poohed their fears, insisting that the new law was necessary to protect restaurant and bar employees against the risks of passive smoking.
Norway became the second nation in the world after Ireland to impose a country-wide ban on smoking in all public places. Italy has since imposed a similar ban.
The ban may not have proved detrimental to Norway's bar and restaurant businesses, but it does not seem to have inspired more people to stub out their cigarettes for good either.
According to figures published by Statistics Norway two weeks ago, the number of Norwegian daily smokers between the ages of 16 and 24 actually increased last year, jumping to 23.7 percent from 22.8 percent in 2003.
01/31/2005 17:45 GMT - AFP