ICR Survey Clears the Air Over New Jerseys Proposed Indoor Air Act

Media, Pennsylvania, April 29, 2005 A recent telephone survey conducted by International Communications Research (ICR) indicates that New Jersey restaurants, bars and casinos may not see their profits go up in smoke if New Jersey lawmakers enact a Clean Indoor Air Act.

Nearly two-thirds of the adults who call New Jersey home would support a statewide Clean Indoor Air Act, according to the survey. Support for the proposed legislation was equally strong with adults in the Mid-Atlantic regionDelaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New York and southwest Connecticuta major feeder market for the casino and hospitality industry in the Garden State. To see a written analysis of these findings, see the ICR Survey Report.

Key Findings

- More than a third (34 percent) of the smokers within the survey area would be in favor of an indoor smoking ban.

- Almost 80 percent of nonsmokers support an indoor smoking ban.

According to the survey, an indoor smoking ban would not have a negative effect on visits to Atlantic City. When asked if people would be more likely to visit the casinos in Atlantic City, less likely or not influenced if a Clean Indoor Air Act was implemented, close to three- quarters (73%) said it would have no impact on their travel plans to visit Atlantic City. In fact, the data indicates that approximately 1.5 million more adults (out of the 20.5 million in the survey area) would visit more often if the smoke cleared.

Survey results also suggest a positive impact for New Jerseys restaurants. Almost one-third of those surveyed (29 percent) said they would actually dine out more often if restaurants did not allow smoking, and more than half (61 percent) said a smoking ban would have no bearing at all on their decision to visit a restaurant. Only one in 10 people surveyed said they would dine out less if smoking was banned from restaurants.

The survey was conducted by telephone from March 23 to April 17, 2005 , among 496 adults in the Mid-Atlantic region, comprising 118 adults throughout New Jersey and 378 adults in Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New York and southwestern Connecticut.

To access the full survey results or to learn more about ICR, please visit www.icrsurvey.com.

ICR, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Media, Pennsylvania, is a top-ranked and nationally recognized market research organization in the business-to-business and consumer markets. Through its research in the U.S. and over 70 countries worldwide, ICR provides consulting and research insights to its clients on a wide range of issues including branding, market segmentation, customer and employee satisfaction, loyalty, advertising, public relations, multicultural and ethnic marketing, social science, public policy, and many others.

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