Tourists coming to visit the Maldives’ islands will also have to adhere to the law, but Mr Afaal argues the smoking ban will not have a detrimental impact on tourism.
“People don’t come to the Maldives because they’re able to smoke. They come for the beaches, they come for the sea, they come for the sun, and they come for the fresh air,” he added.
Quoting tourism data, Mr Afaal argued that despite the new regulations there had been no tourist cancellations and the number of arrivals had grown in the past year.
“We’re projecting more than 2m [tourists] in the next year,” he said.
Plans by New Zealand to pass a generational smoking ban were scrapped in 2023 after a new government took power.
The move was seen as a blow to many health experts and Māori people in particular, who have one of the highest smoking rates.
Last year, the UK’s then-Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, had hoped to introduce a law that would ban young people born on or after 2009 from smoking.
A new version of the legislation, external, introduced by the current government, has passed through the Commons and is now at the committee stage at the House of Lords – nearing its last hurdles before it gets royal assent.
