We, the delegates to the 6th Regional Meeting of Smoke-free Cities in the Asia Pacific Region from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, gathered in the Ancient Town of Hoi An, Vietnam, recognize that:
Tourism is an excellent opportunity to showcase not only the beauty, diversity, hospitality, and culture of its people or the landscapes, flora and fauna, cuisine, handicrafts, entertainment, and excitement of a country, but also an opportunity to protect people and the environment from tobacco harms;
There is significant evidence that smoke-free laws and policies are associated with economic growth of the hospitality / tourism sector, including hotels and restaurants, and do not lead to lost revenues, job losses, or lower numbers of visitors or customers;
In 2016, Asia and the Pacific was the second most visited region in the world after Europe, welcoming 308 million international tourists and accounting for 30% of the world’s international tourism receipts;
Tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke cause numerous, devastating health, social, economic, and environmental harms;
In order to effectively protect public health, smoke-free laws and policies should be comprehensive, applying to all public places without exception and including new and emerging products that sustain nicotine addiction;
Governments and policy makers have a duty to protect and promote the right of all persons to the highest standard of health and to a healthy, smoke-free environment;
Because smoke-free laws are good for public health, good for tourism, and good for the environment:
We reaffirm our commitment to strengthen the implementation and enforcement of smoke-free laws and policies in our jurisdictions and to assist others seeking to do the same, so as to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, economic, and environmental harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke;
We fully support smoke-free tourism as a tobacco control strategy to protect our people and environment moving towards a sustainable future and reject the various socio-economic myths propagated by the tobacco industry against smoke-free policies;
We commit to promote smoke-free tourism and advocate for effective action by our ministries of tourism and other tourism authorities and organizations; and
We warmly welcome all visitors to our smoke-free cities and heritage sites, where we promote living, playing, learning, eating, shopping, sightseeing, and health and well-being in 100% smoke-free environments.
