Sydney’s Courtyard by Marriott North Ryde Hotel has became a smoke-free property, in response to strong and consistent feedback from guests.The hotel’s move coincides with World No Tobacco Day, a global event to highlight the dangers of smoking.

Effective immediately, “smoking rooms” no longer will be available in the 196-room hotel, located at the corner of Lane Cove and Talavera Roads in the Macquarie business precinct.

“Our smoke-free policy is in line with increasing public concern and opinion against smoking in public places,” said Louise Byrom, General Manager of the Courtyard by Marriott North Ryde.

“Our decision was in response to guest surveys over more than a year, in which the overwhelming number of respondents favoured a ban on smoking within the hotel building,” said Ms Byrom.

“In addition to a prohibition on smoking within the hotel, we have banned the sale of tobacco products on the property. So now, the only place that guests or visitors can smoke is in designated areas outside the building.”

Wendy Oakes, Manager of Tobacco Health Strategies at The Cancer Council NSW, said, “We congratulate the hotel for taking such a strong, progressive lead to protect staff against the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, while also making the stay safer and much more pleasant for guests.”

The hotel’s decision to go smoke-free coincides with new figures from the NSW Government that its anti-smoking campaigns are working, with a record number of people calling the Quitline in May.

The Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer), Frank Sartor, said today that more than 7,000 people called the Quitline during this month - the most callers in any month for nearly 10 years.

“Over 2004 and 2005, we saw an overall drop of around 10% in the number of smokers in NSW - or around 100,000 less smokers,” Mr Sartor said.

He said the positive results were encouraging - but there were still more than 1 million smokers in NSW, and smoking was still the biggest cause of cancer.

“The World No Tobacco theme for 2006 is ‘Tobacco: Deadly in any form or disguise’,” said Mr Sartor. “I would urge men and women in NSW to remember that every cigarette is doing you damage.”

Ms Byrom said the smoke-free policy would make the Courtyard by Marriott North Ryde safer and more comfortable not only for its core customer base of weekday business travellers, but more family-friendly, particularly for leisure guests, many of whom are accompanied by their children on weekends or in holiday periods.
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