And a little more than three months on, pubs have reported a difficult transition.

Nigel Dobson, landlord of the Liverpool Arms, in Main Road, Baldrine, said that, as expected, trade was down on this time last year.

He said the drop could be down to a number of factors — last year being the TT's centenary year, prevailing economic conditions or the smoking ban.

'I have not heard anyone saying business is booming this year,' he said.
Mr Dobson, based on what he has seen in pubs in the UK, predicted a drop in trade over the first year.

He said that trade in pubs that were able to adjust and survive would then pick up in two or three years' time.

In order to deal with the drop he has been promoting food and has invested money in this side of the business.

An outside area was opened just in time for the TT and he said this was being used mainly by people eating.

The pub has lost some regular customers, but Mr Dobson thinks the 'real test will be during the winter when it is not so comfortable to stand outside for a cigarette'.

Colin Moore, manager of Legends Nightclub, Peveril Square, Douglas, and Macbeths, Victoria Street, Douglas, said the smoking ban was 'a nuisance' at the nightclub 'because it is another area we have to police, as well as the rest of the club'.

He predicted Legends would be insulated from the ban because it had an outside area, and he said this seemed to be the case.

At Macbeths, he said there was a downturn in trade when the ban was first introduced but thought business was picking up again as people got used to it.

He said: 'We are lucky in that our regulars are very loyal — they have kept coming to the pub and live with the fact they have to go outside to smoke.

'It's not the fact we are losing regular customers — it is more the fact people are coming out less often.

'Rather than spending many hours every night in the pub they will go home earlier and be out fewer nights.'

Mr Moore said that although there was no space for an outside smoking area, they were in the same position as a lot of Douglas pubs.

'We are confident we will weather the storm,' he added. 'It is an inconvenience and it always will be but we are faring as well in the trade as anyone else.'

Bushy's Brewery boss Martin Brunnschweiler said the firm hadn't experienced too much of a downturn in trade since the smoking ban was introduced.

He said: 'I think the Rovers Return in Douglas and, I suppose I can speak more for the Bay in Port Erin, I don't think we have been too badly affected.

'I think where the problems are going to be is in the winter. The mild weather means that it hasn't been too big a problem to go out for a smoke.

'I think people will think twice about going down the pub when there's the wind and the rain's horizontal.'

HAS THE SMOKING BAN AFFECTED YOUR PUB HABITS?
Send your comments to bizviews@newsiom.co.im

YOUR COMMENTS

The down trade in the pubs is not down to the smoking ban . Everyone is looking for a scapegoat. The bottom line is that the goods (beers, wines, spirits and especially soft drinks) are too expensive. Let's let some big brewers in from the UK and let's see the brewery have some competition. But as I have said in the past the IOM doesn't do competition. Monopoly's only. And before anyone moans I am a non smoking (ex heavy smoker) Manxman.
BILLY, Onchan

Could the downturn in business be attributed to the fact that people are struggling to pay for houses, fuel and food. Maybe people don't have the disposable income to spend on pubs and clubs any more.
KEVIN, Douglas

Unfortunately I only really enjoy a pint if it is with a cigarette – so unless it is for a specific purpose sadly, I have stopped going to pubs as there is nothing enjoyable about going out in the cold for a cigarette when there is an almost empty warm pub inside. In my opinion, the most logical place to allow smoking is actually in premises that are already licensed to sell that other great evil, alcohol. Mind you, now the do-gooders and nanny state have had their way with smoking, alcohol could well be the next target and then we will get pubs with no smoking and no beer.
JIM, Port St Mary

I agree with the other comments posted. The smoking ban may account for a very small downturn but I think the fact that everyone has less money to spend is more than likely the main reason. The cost of living here is increasing and the brewery's greed hasn't helped. People only have a limited amount of spare cash and with the cost of fuel rocketing and the other prices following suit they can't afford to go out as much. Don't try and blame the smoking ban, all that has done is make the pubs more habitable for those of us that don't smoke.
ANDREW, Peel

To deny the effects of the smoking ban is to deny reality. The economy has been through worse than this and yet the pub trade has never been so badly impacted. 27 are closing every week, that's a record breaking closure rate. The fact that this surge in closures is mirrored in Scotland & Ireland when there was no credit crunch also show how badly the smoking ban impacts business. How many lives saves? Not a single one confirmed.
RT SIMPSON

Trade is down in pubs because prices charged are insane these days, a complete rip off. I for one have decided NOT to be ripped off anymore. Goodbye pubs – sorry.
RICHARD, Onchan

Try the real stay in and make home brew. You do not have to buy the kits although the fermenters and barrels are good buys at Wilkinsons. The Internet has some good recipes especially some from the colonial American era. Try real mead or metheglin. Try the traditional Manx elderflower drink. Try old fashioned Victorian ginger beer. Make this with bread yeast which produces CO2 gas in a container for beer brewing and you have five gallons of soft drink for the price of a bag of sugar and some ginger root and all within 24 hours! Add champagne/pilsner yeast and you have alcoholic ginger beer about 5% strength after ten days or so. That should be alcoholics' ginger beer! In fact, add any flavouring to sugar and water plus bread yeast & Tartaric acid and you get huge amounts of soft fizzy pop for pennies a gallon. The only trouble with non-kit homebrew is that it is so cheap it is almost free and you can get well over the daily unit allowance and not notice because you are not ha n!!ding over any money. Get brewing and save those two litre plastic bottles! Next week. How to make your own diesel!
BARRIE STEVENS, Douglas

I prefer the pubs now the ban has been introduced. I've been out more since it was implemented than I did before. It'd be great if smoking were banned everywhere in my opinion.
HEALTHY LUNGS, Onchan

I think it's brilliant that you can now go in a pub and not go home at the end of the night smelling like you've rolled in an ashtray! And the smell of stale cigarettes hanging in the air was disgusting. Also another plus for me is not having to use an inhaler every time I went out because the thick cloud of cigarette smoke used to make my asthma flare up (which is the reason why I didn't go out to pubs much in the past). But now we now go out a lot more BECAUSE of the smoking ban. And I am sure I am not the only one who thinks like that. I personally think the down turn in trade is due to the fact that it is getting expensive, especillay if you are buying a round of drinks, and drink from supermarkets is now cheaper, so people choose to stay at home.
LIN R

The problem with the Liverpool Arms may have something to do with the so called 'refurbishment', it's an uncoordinated eyesore inside the actual pub, same drab old paint job reminiscent of the 1970's. Why don't landlords wake up to the fact that customers don't want to go into a pub that is worse than their own home? Anyone been inside the New Inn at Laxey recently…?
GG