Page 29 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2021

buffet options. As such, hotels will likely continue with grab-and-go fare for the foreseeable future.
Leisure and personal travel is ex- pected to surge for at least the next year; corporate travel will make a slow- but-steady recovery. Because of the pandemic, Delawareans were forced to cancel travel plans as well as postpone life events, such as weddings and fu- nerals. If you haven’t heard it yet, the starting gun has been fired, and we appear ready to catch up for lost time. We are slowed only because our pock- ets are full of money. By sheltering in place, we did not spend as much as we normally would with the day-to-day costs of commuting to work. Our beach businesses are thus expecting a record- breaking summer.
Corporate travel in Delaware — i.e., businesspeople visiting for work-related reasons — is reliant on the legal, gov- ernment and banking sectors. All three sectors have been methodical in the pace of scaling back up. Corporate travel will not begin again in earnest until these sectors fully return to the workplace. It may be two or three years before cor- porate travel, especially in New Castle County, returns to pre-pandemic levels.
V. Smoking and Hookah
Delawareans are interested in hoo- kah in growing numbers. Hookah is often referred to as water-pipe tobac- co smoking. Specifically, a hookah is a smoking instrument, through which the smoker imbibes tobacco that has been heated or vaporized. The interest in hookah is natural, given the overall rise in smoking during the pandemic as well as the industry trend toward vap- ing. Due to the prolonged sheltering in place, coupled with the stress and anxi- ety of the pandemic, there has been an increase in smoking.14 In addition, over the past 15 years or so, many traditional smokers have gravitated toward vaping. Vaping is inhaling a vapor created by an electronic cigarette. Vaping had become
so popular among kids that in 2019, the Delaware General Assembly stepped in to tighten regulations, including raising the smoking age from 18 to 21.15 As more people smoke and as more people smoke through vaping, Delawareans have been drawn to the traditional vap- ing method of hookah.
Due to the hookah trend, bars and restaurants want to offer a “hookah menu” so patrons can eat, drink and smoke as a simultaneous social experi- ence. However, Delaware has its land- mark Clean Indoor Air Act, dating back to 2003, which prohibits indoor smoking in public spaces.16 There are exceptions, but those exceptions do not include bars and restaurants. As such, indoor hookah smoking at a bar or res- taurant appears to violate the Clean In- door Air Act. As seen with the cocktails- to-go legislation, the General Assembly is sympathetic to changing the law, at least temporarily, in order to help food establishments recover from the pan- demic. As demands to offer a hookah menu increase, will the General Assem- bly be willing to carve out an exception to the Clean Indoor Air Act?
VI. Conclusion
The hospitality and tourism indus- try rises every day on the shoulders of entrepreneurs. These men and women have more courage than most, for they understand that the odds of succeeding are against them. What will the post- pandemic environment bring? In many ways, it will bring more of the same, for in order to survive, entrepreneurs must adapt, problem-solve and overcome. Indeed, they press on, boats against the tide, believing in their dream and com- mitted to their craft.
NOTES
1. See generally Twenty-eighth modification: Del. State of Emergency Declaration (May 12, 2021), https://governor.delaware.gov/execu- tive-orders/eo28, and Twenty-ninth modifica- tion: Del. State of Emergency Declaration (May 18, 2021), https://governor.delaware.gov/
executive-orders/eo29
2. Patricia Talorico of the News Journal has maintained an updated list of restaurant clo- sures. See, e.g., https://www.delawareonline. com/story/life/2020/06/03/delaware-restau- rants-closed-good-due-covid-19/5316706002 3. Carrie Leishman, One Year Ago - A Defin- ing Moment for Restaurants, Delaware Res- taurant Association (March 16, 2021) https:// mailchi.mp/4234604ed0c3/oneyearlater
4. Consider the many news stories this past May of unruly behavior by airline passengers as well as sports fans.
5. Humans are social beings, who innately en- joy eating and drinking with others. In 1930, a German painter predicted the future by paint- ing two women, sitting in an outdoor café, drinking and smoking, with a waiter nearby. One woman converses on a portable phone with a gentleman; the phone has a video screen through which they can see each other in real time. The other woman has a similar device through which she is amusing a baby. Ninety years ago, this painter was prescient enough
to predict the technology of modern-day cell- phones. More important to this discussion, the German painter also understood the human mind: Despite all the technology available
in the future, people would still embrace the pleasures of sitting at a café to chat, drink and smoke.
6. The boom of delivery is not new to the American story. There was a time not long ago when everyday staples such as ice, milk and eggs were delivered regularly to one’s home.
7. Jeffrey Dastin, Akanksha Rana, Amazon’s sales and profit rise as retailer rides wave
of pandemic shopping, Reuters (April 30, 2021), https://www.reuters.com/technol- ogy/amazon-first-quarter-sales-beat-expecta- tions-2021-04-29.
8. Delivery of Alcoholic Beverages, California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (April 30, 2020), https://www.abc.ca.gov/ delivery-of-alcoholic-beverages
9. The author is grateful to Paul Ruggiero, president and CEO of NKS Distributors, for his insight.
10. An Act to Amend Title 4 of the Delaware Code Relating to Alcoholic Liquors, House Bill No. 1, 151st General Assembly, 2021.
11. 4 Del. C. § 512(a)(1).
12. 4 Del. C. § 512(a)(2).
13. The author is grateful to Ben Seidel, presi- dent and CEO of Real Hospitality Group, and Sarah Willoughby, recently retired executive director of the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau, for their insights.
14. Cara Murez, Smoking Makes a Comeback in the Pandemic, Web-MD News from Health- Day (March 16, 2021), https://www.webmd. com/smoking-cessation/news/20210316/ smoking-makes-a-comeback-in-the-pandemic 15. An Act to Amend Title 11, Title 16, and Title 30 of The Delaware Code Relating to Delivery and Sales of Tobacco Products, Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill No. 25, 150th Gen- eral Assembly, 2019,
16. See generally 16 Del. C. ch. 29, Clean In- door Air Act.
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