Tag: Norm Bour

Myriad Issues

Credit: Phaisarnwong2517
Industry experts explain why vaping regulations vary throughout Southeast Asia.
By Norm Bour
After living in Southeast Asia for the past year, I don’t have much more clarity about the vaping laws here than when I arrived. There is no commonality and no correlation between countries. And in many cases, there is no common sense either.
In the U.S., England and other large countries, there is usually just one regulatory agency in control, the proverbial Goliath to be fought by the Davids out there. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been the American tormentor for the dozen years I have been in the vaping industry, and even though some states—and in some cases cities—have instituted their own guidelines (thank you, San Francisco, for your 2018 flavor ban), at least the “enemy” is understood.
To get a better feel of what I might be missing, I contacted highly regarded and well-known Ecigintelligence and its parent company, Tamarind, which has offices in Barcelona, London and New York. They were kind enough to get thoughts from several of their team members.
Legal analyst Sergi Riudalbas Clemente identified Malaysia and Indonesia as being the furthest along regarding specific regulations for vaping in their countries.
“Malaysia and Indonesia have wanted to regulate these products for a long time, and they have finally decided to do so. This entails a comprehensive regulatory framework, in contrast to what other Asian countries have decided to do, which is to ban these products,” said Clemente, and I agree with those directions since they are attempting to control rather than ban the products, as they do in Thailand, one of the most draconian markets.
One of the biggest problems Clemente identified is that “harm reduction is never acknowledged, thus vaping is treated equally to tobacco products,” which is a misstep.
Freddie Dawson, who has also spent a decade in the industry, serves as managing editor at Tamarind Intelligence. According to him, one of the biggest culprits pushing the anti-vape message is the World Health Organization, which has historically focused on scare tactics like “accidental poisoning, youth corruption and unexpected consequences and side effects.”
Of the four Asian countries I have lived in since last year, just one, Malaysia, seems to take a commonsense and open-minded look at the vape scene. Dawson sees Malaysia following that same direction on the one “good” hand but Thailand staying the course on the other “bad” hand.
Another Tamarind employee, legal analyst Fernanda Tucunduva, cited a scary statistic from Vietnam. “Data from the authorities show that the use rate of e-cigarettes by young people (13–15) increased from 3.5 percent to 8 percent in one year,” Tucunduva said. “This is a big jump and seems to reflect a shifting preference among younger populations toward vaping and other nicotine alternatives.”
According to Statista, in Southeast Asia, the revenue generated in the e-cigarette market is projected to reach $700 million in 2024. The market is anticipated to experience a compound annual growth rate of 1.85 percent between 2024 and 2029. Compared globally, the United States leads in revenue generation, with an estimated $8.83 billion in 2024. Considering the total population figures, the per-person revenue in Southeast Asia is expected to be $1.25 in 2024. In Singapore, the strict regulations on e-cigarettes have led to a decrease in popularity and limited market growth.
As much as disposables have been a double-edged sword—convenient on the one hand, easily concealable on the other—it’s hard not to point at them as a catalyst to underage vaping. With such low price points and various options, there is something to suit anyone’s tastes.
Overall, in Asia, as well as the rest of the world, two enormous problems are limiting the vape market: education and the enforceability of the laws. Eva Antal, the group’s director of market analysis, shared her thoughts about the youth market in Vietnam and addressed the youths’tendencies to follow the crowd.
“It is true that younger age groups are more likely to experiment and that disposables are very easy to use, but it’s very hard to prove if that person would have started smoking if vapes were not around, and sad as that is, it is extraordinarily accurate,” she said. “Cigarettes have appealed to the youth market as long as kids looked for ways to rebel against their parents, authorities and society as a whole.
“Decades ago, before cigarettes were identified as being the cancer-causing vehicles they are, most parents discouraged their kids from doing it, but since they probably did it themselves, they didn’t want to appear hypocritical.”
In developing nations, cigarettes are too prevalent and familiar, and seeing construction workers and vendors smoking in the streets is an everyday situation. When I wrote in an earlier article about Vietnamese cigarettes being crazy cheap at a price of $1.33 (second only to Nigeria), I was reminded that that price was a significant percentage of their gross income.
Dawson reiterates the enforceability issue as significant in Asia and elsewhere. Vapers more often do not make their own vaping devices; they buy them somewhere.
He writes, “In the American market, 99 percent of the products currently being sold are technically illegal as they do not have a PMTA [premarket tobacco product application] market authorization.” Whether we are critical of the entire PMTA process or just its convoluted nature, these two wrongs do not make a right.
“In Australia, Uber drivers were, until recently at least, openly advertising the sale of e-cigarettes despite there being a prohibition in place,” stated Dawson.
Malaysia may be at the forefront of regulation in Southeast Asia with its Generational Endgame provision, which was part of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024.
It appears that industry pressure from various places has kept this regulation off the table. It would have prohibited the sale of vaping and tobacco products to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007, and two different Tamarind persons indicated that there seem to be political and financial motives to keep things at the status quo.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.
October 28, 2024
Norm Bour: Vape Laws Vary From Country to Country

Genoa at Gaya Vapes in Bali
By Norm Bour
As I travel from one country to the next, everything changes: languages, currencies, foods—and also vape laws, which are so specific and seemingly random that it is challenging to keep them straight.
Before I arrived in Indonesia, I was in New Zealand and Australia—both modern, contemporary, First World countries.
New Zealand seemed comfortable with its vape laws, and shops were abundant. In Sydney and Canberra, Australia, vape shops were less common, and I had little success getting concrete feedback from shop owners and employees. There seemed to be paranoia there, and maybe there was just cause.
With Health Minister Mark Butler having proudly stated on the record that Australia’s vape laws will be the “toughest in the world,” the vape shop owners’ fears may be justified. The government is lowering the hammer on disposables, and so far, more than A$11 million ($7.3 million) of nicotine-containing vape products—11 tons—have been seized this year.
In November, Butler announced that Australia would ban all imports of disposable vapes beginning Jan. 1, 2024. The ban will be expanded in March 2024 to include all nontherapeutic vapes, including refillable devices, while importers of vapes for medical purposes will need a permit from the Office of Drug Control.
Therapeutic vapes will be restricted from using flavors, have limited nicotine levels and be sold in pharmaceutical packaging under new rules to be introduced in 2024, with a transition period for manufacturers to comply.
The legislative package will also include a total A$75 million in extra funding for the Australian Border Force and the Therapeutic Goods Administration to enforce the new rules. Additional legislation next year will apply the same prohibitions to domestic manufacturers.
When it’s all said and done, it appears that no vape products will be sold without a prescription, and instead, they will be sold at pharmacies. Say goodbye to vape shops, and say, “welcome back, black market.”
New Zealand may not be far behind.
Currently, vaping laws are reasonable in Kiwi Country, and vape shops can operate independently but with significant government oversight. Age restrictions are huge, and to that end, disposables and flavoring (including “enticing names”) will be banned in the near future.
In late 2022, the New Zealand Parliament adopted the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill, which regulators said would phase out combustible tobacco product use in the country. However, in November, New Zealand’s new coalition government announced its plans to scrap the generational tobacco ban, which would have prohibited tobacco products for people born after 2009.
While ditching the generational tobacco ban, the new government vowed to get tough on vaping by banning disposable e-cigarettes and increasing penalties for illegal sales to those aged under 18.
Meanwhile, 2,000 miles to the north is another world—“a newly industrialized country with a rapidly growing economy and political stability,” per the Indonesian press.
Most shops are basic in their appearance, as is their product supply.
The government has mostly ignored the vape market, and aside from an excise tax on e-liquids, there are few regulations on physical or online shops. For a decade, the government has stated its intention to address vape products, but for now, it has settled on a tax rate of 57 percent on vape products versus 40 percent on tobacco.
In September, the Indonesian Parliament passed Health Law No. 17 of 2023, which categorizes e-cigarettes as addictive substances. Teguh Basuki A. Wibowo, chairman of the Indonesian Electronic Nicotine Industry Alliance, told the media that including e-cigarettes in the legal framework for solid and liquid tobacco products legalizes industry participants and allows smokers to find alternative products.
The law puts Indonesia on equal footing with countries like the Philippines and the U.K., which have similar legislative frameworks for e-cigarettes, Wibowo said.
With almost 65 million smokers, Indonesia trails only China and India in terms of prevalence. Tobacco is heavily advertised through television and other media, which has traditionally been one of the first targets of restrictions.
In the city of Ubud, Bali, a favorite base for expats from all over the world, I visited Nyali Vapes, and the shop’s owners confirmed the same trends I heard about elsewhere: Disposables are the largest sellers. The people at Gaya Vapes, my next stop, said likewise, and when I asked about surprise visits from regulators, counterman Genoa admitted that these visits are frequent.
He also spoke about the differences between the locals and the tourists: “Most of the tourists come in for refills and [fewer for] disposables,” he said. “They ask for their flavors, and we usually do not have their exact brand, but we do have a similar flavor, which they are fine with.”
One of the largest groups of visitors to Indonesia, and Bali in particular, are Australians, home to the world’s most expensive cigarettes, at more than $25 a pack. Over the course of my time in Bali, I asked some Aussies if they stocked up on smokes while they were visiting, and unanimously, they all said, “hell, yes!”
Even though all countries are different, some vapers’ patterns are standard, including that of Genoa, the front desk guy at Gaya Vapes, age 25, who stopped smoking in 2017 and started vaping instead. But he did confess that sometimes money is tight, in which case he goes with a cigarette instead of a vape.
Vaping is much cheaper, but liquid prices can be off-putting for consumers with Indonesian wages. Regardless, Genoa’s passion for vaping is what motivated him to work at Gaya, one of several shops in the area with that same name.
For those earning foreign salaries, life is cheap in Indonesia, a condition that also applies to tobacco and vape products. A standard pack of cigarettes costs about IDR24,000, which equates to just under $1.60. A name brand like Marlboro will set you back about $2.25 per pack, which is still a bargain for those accustomed to foreign prices. Indonesia is not the world’s cheapest country for smokers—that honor goes to Vietnam—but it is in the lowest percentile.
My new friend William at Glory Vapes confessed that he was a dual user, and because vaping was so much cheaper (even at those insanely low cigarette prices), he was able to make his disposables last up to three weeks. Add in his love for all the fruit flavors, and he remains biased toward the liquids, so he smokes cigarettes only when socializing with friends.
He also shared that local police officers regularly visit the shop, but he suspected they came in more to alleviate boredom than to look for anything illegal.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.
January 2, 2024
The Evolution of Change

Credit: Auremar / Dreamstime.com
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” is an expression that has been around for almost two centuries, and it speaks to the fact that the small picture(s) of life may change, but the larger one does not. The vape industry and all the challenges and changes that have happened in the past decade are totally contrary to that famous saying.
A decade ago, the vape industry was the epidemy of the Wild, Wild West, full of vape shops springing up on every corner, and any/everyone creating e-liquids in their bathtubs at home. Regulation and competition changed all that and brought some semblance of “orderliness” to the market, but as state and federal regulations bombarded the industry, and with the FDA creating onerous and unattainable guidelines, the vape space has truly become one of survival.
I recently attended a vape event in Phoenix which brought together several dozen top manufacturers, distributors, and buyers, and universally everyone lamented the same concern: business is down.
Why is business down?
The reasons are many, including strict regulations, and now, even more enforcement of those regulations, but overall, the cause was much simpler. The huge COVID-19 rebound in 2020-22 put more money in consumers’ pockets and more time on their hands. Those issues combined created an artificial bubble that many thought would last. But time has passed. Add in the inflation that has pushed up food and other cost of living expenses, and some former necessities are now becoming unaffordable luxuries.
“It’s a balancing act between the addictive nature of some nicotine products and the limitations of buyer’s budgets,” said Jamie Reed with Simple Vape Supply from Orange County California. “I’ve been in the industry for over ten years, and this is evolution in its purest form and based around ’survival of the fittest.’”
Simple manufactures and distributes over 100 different assortments of nicotine cartridges, including disposables, including various iterations of CBD, Delta-8 and Kratom.
“It’s interesting,” Reed added. “When I got hired, I was told that there was an ‘expiration date,’ and we all knew that this industry might not last, and that the cream would rise (to the top). We planned to be one of those surviving companies, and we’ve been able to adapt to the times.”
Her company, along with many that are still around, were mostly run by rebels, radicals, and envelope pushers; and many have in fact changed accordingly, but some have merely learned how to “play the game” and outwardly appear to be toeing the line, but the reality may be different.
“We were aware that the COVID blip was a one-time event. People were home, they had government money to spend, and no one was checking in on them or requiring any urine tests. The Delta (8,10) boom really added to that, and everyone jumped on that bandwagon,” she said excitedly.
That line of CBD was an example of how the industry has and continues to push back. The FDA says you can’t do this, so the industry says, “F-you, then we’ll do that.”
With regulation eliminating or reducing product selection, almost any industry will do the same thing: adapt; repurpose, or reposition.
Of the dozens of people I spoke with at the event, the numbers (from shop owners and manufacturers) were pretty consistent, and most of them were down 20 to 30 percent. Many were saying that purchase sizes were lower than normal and a typical ten-thousand-dollar order was now half that. They saw some shops closing, but most were working on smaller revenues.
Manager J-K Thorne holds some of the flavored products that are no longer available at Wild Impulse vape shop. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
Meanwhile, on the other side of the equation, vape liquid manufacturers who are trying to “play the game” right and submitting premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are frustrated at the amount of time it takes and how much money is being thrown into a (seemingly) dark hole.
I spoke with one of the owners of a large vape manufacturing business and distribution company in Idaho, and he shared some facts and figures about their process of trying to make their products “legal.” Legal, in the eyes of the FDA, has caused his company to squander over $5 million in the past few years trying to get authorization.
Mike Larsen is a detailed and focused vape guy who has been in the industry for over a decade and is with Lotus Vaping Technology, which started in 2011. As a partner and director of sales, he is on the front line of everything the company does to stay legal and compliant and is riding the roller coaster ride on a daily basis.
“Disposables have really changed the game,” he said, “and they have reduced the role of vape shops where people used to come for education and guidance. Consolidations and closures have also reduced the shop numbers by 30 to 40 percent, and now you have larger conglomerates doing the work of the multitude of shops.”
We spoke about a possible flavor ban nationally, and he said he was skeptical.
“The PMTA process has already reduced or eliminated flavors, so it may not be necessary to go to that length. There have been between six and seven million submissions by thousands of companies, and so far, just 23 have been approved. I know of a few companies that submitted over a million applications themselves. And here’s the irony: everyone approved has been a Big Tobacco company, and they make up just a fraction of the total vaping market.”
The second irony on top of that, is that those so-called approved products are ones that no one wants.
We talked about whether those approvals were fair or were the result of favoritism and bias, and he smiled since we both knew the answer.
“When you look at the PMTA process and the rigid requirements, it seems pretty obvious that they were written to the advantage of the larger, established companies, and the “small guy” had very little chance in this skewed game. You can’t even budget for something like this,” he continued. “The original filing costs over a million dollars, and I know several companies that have put another ten million in, only to get denied. Who has deep pockets like that? In 2016 I could have named over 150 liquid companies doing good business; today I can name about three dozen.”
And that is why the number of companies manufacturing tobacco and vape products is half what it was and is getting smaller every year. The FDA changes the rules of the game continually.
“There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear,” is the beginning line of a song that speaks to changes going on in society. That song by Buffalo Springfield may have nothing to do with vape, but the message says the same thing: there is something happening here although it may be clearer than we realize. We all knew this would happen; it was predicted a decade ago.
In the vape space, the more things change…the more things change.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.
September 29, 2023
The Vape Sectors in Egypt and Israel are Growing

The vaping markets in Egypt and Israel vary, but both are thriving and helping smokers switch.
By Norm Bour
The Middle East has always been full of smokers, and vaping has made an impact, but not to the same degree as other countries. While in Israel, I visited a few vape shops in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and there were some immediate similarities between them and the U.S. There were also significant differences.
Mendel Silverman works at the Drop Shop in Jerusalem and has been in the business for several years. When Silverman moved from the U.S. to Israel, he took up hookah—until he realized how unhealthy it was and switched to vaping.
“The industry is very robust, and unfortunately one of the biggest weaknesses is customer service,” he confessed, though that has been the bane of the vape space since the beginning. “We are lucky because we still have enough leeway to offer our own [e-liquid] mixes in a variety of nicotine levels, from 0 to 18 and about a dozen in between. And [nicotine] salt is a big seller, even though the regulators have made it more difficult and taxed the hell out of it.”
Both Israel’s finance and health ministries aimed to tax vaping products at the same rate as cigarettes. Maintaining that vaping is just as dangerous as smoking, the health ministry initially sought an even higher tax. According to Israel Hayom, an Israeli news outlet, Finance Committee chairman Alex Kushnir “reduced the conversion formula by 30 percent compared to what the Ministry of Health wanted.”
That tax comes out to be ILS21 ($5.75) per millimeter, which equals 270 percent of the wholesale cost, plus $4.94 per milliliter of e-liquid, which is the second highest e-liquid tax rate in the world.
E-cigarettes and e-liquids are regulated in Israel under the Tobacco Act, and they are subject to the same restrictions as combustible cigarettes. However, Israel’s health ministry has recently discussed the possibility of banning marketing of electronic cigarettes. The ministry said, “options are being examined due to two difficult cases and the widespread phenomenon,” referring to the increase of youth using e-cigarettes.
Watching Silverman add ingredients to a bottle of base—basic PG and VG—was a throwback to the U.S. pre-restrictions days when vape shops in the U.S. could do the same thing.
“We don’t sell any off-the-shelf flavors,” he shared. “But we can add menthol, flavors and nicotine to match (consumer) needs, and we can sell it cheaper than if we sold a name brand bottle that was complete.”
The owner of Drop Shop started the business selling products from the trunk of his car 10 years ago, a theme that appears to recur worldwide. As demand grew, he opened his first retail shop, which was robust until 2019 when the government banned importation of e-liquids with more than 2 percent nicotine. That devastated the business, so Silverman started creating his own flavors, paid tax on the nicotine and moved into a smaller shop.
Like their counterparts elsewhere, Israeli regulators justified charging higher taxes with the need to curb sales to minors, but such measures are usually equally driven by a desire for money. Even though the market is hurt, sales to all age groups continue, and the taxation affected cigarettes as well but not to the same degree.
Universally, excessive taxation of nicotine has created an underground movement in Israel, with many vapers making their own juices. It also pushed many vapers back to smoking. I shared my surprise at seeing many “religiously dressed” people smoking. “The yeshiva world, which involves the study of the Torah and Rabbinic text, has always been heavily into tobacco because it also includes the social aspect of it,” explained Silverman. Students and practitioners gather in coffee shops and similar places, and they all smoke together. In many cases, they do not have much of a life outside their studies, so tobacco is even more significant.”
According to the Israel Ministry of Health, smoking rates of the 21-plus crowd have been hovering at about 20 percent for several years, including a large percentage of military members. We finished our conversation by talking about the game changer of the past few years: disposable products.
According to Silverman, most Israeli consumers are looking for the simplest way to vape, but they have more interest in the nonrefillable versions even though they are more expensive.
The bottom line for vaping, taxes and smoking in Israel is that most things will probably remain status quo until or unless something seriously rocks the boat.
Over the Border
The vape scene in Egypt is totally different. For many years, vape products were illegal and mostly underground, but that changed in May 2022 when vape products were legalized. Considering that the industry is very much in its infancy, it still has a ways to go.
“The lifting of the ban highlights the Egyptian authorities’ progressive approach to e-cigarettes and sets the stage for the creation of a regulated market rich with business opportunities through serving the demand for easily accessible, quality products by legal age (adult) consumers across the country,” wrote RELX International, a leading player in the segment, in a statement last year.
With its decision to legalize vaping, Egypt joins global and regional markets, such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have also legalized and commercialized the consumption of e-cigarettes. As regulators around the world become more accepting of e-cigarettes, the market is expected to continue its steady growth in the coming years.
To complicate the situation, Egypt has a considerable problem with counterfeit products, so it appears that regulated and ethical vape shops have a huge obligation to help smokers quit.
In Cairo, a city of 22 million people, the vape scene is a wide-open opportunity, but finding a vape shop, a true vape shop, proved challenging. Google calls them “vape shops,” but they are more like small kiosks with a limited selection of products.
Many Egyptians are familiar with vaping and the advantages it offers, but true knowledge is rare, and even in a city that large, there were only a handful listed. However, by lifting the ban on e-cigarette products, Egyptian authorities have opened the door to a plethora of business and investment options, according to RELX International.
“Authorized e-cigarette products are traditionally retailed by small-sized and medium-sized businesses, so the move will bolster existing businesses that sell such products and will attract entrepreneurs wishing to set up new retail points across the country. It will likewise draw investment into the country from e-cigarette brands who wish to set up shop in the country and address the market,” the company wrote in its statement.
How much vaping will be embraced by smokers is another story. One in four Egyptians smokes, a ratio that has remained consistent for the past two decades. As high as that number is, Egypt remains near the bottom of the 20 countries with the highest percentages of smokers.
Times are changing, though. In May 2023, the Egypt Vape Expo was held at the Cairo International Convention Center. This event marked the first legal e-cigarette expo in Egypt and attracted many players from B2B channels in North Africa and the Middle East, according to attendees. Many said the show was a success.
The Middle East has long been a black hole for the vaping industry, and it’s only recently that the government has opened the doors for entrepreneurs. However, the success of vaping businesses remains to be seen.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.
June 29, 2023
The Long Road

The IQOS heat-not-burn brand remains one of the most popular products in the category.
By Norm Bour
For those who have been in the nicotine industry for more than a few years, the IQOS saga is an amazing story of the ups and downs and volatility of the vapor market. If there is a real-life example of a “killer app,” IQOS changed the direction of vaping and introduced the concept of “heat-not-burn.”
First launched in Italy and Japan in 2016, IQOS was initially shot down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been the regulatory agency’s tendency since it received the authority to regulate vaping products. Since the FDA started soliciting and accepting premarket tobacco product applications, a long and arduous approval process, it has approved just a handful of products and cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours of legal work and accounting.
IQOS didn’t find the process any easier.
Owned by Philip Morris International, which has billions of dollars to spend on new technologies and employs who knows how many well-connected lobbyists, none of that made a difference. Since the company has an international footprint, PMI could focus on greener pastures and jurisdictions with less challenging regulations, so the company put its efforts on “testing” IQOS outside the U.S., where it was generally well received.
PMI built its first factory in Italy, and after the initial tests in Italy and Japan proved successful, it introduced IQOS in the U.K. Over the years, PMI has partnered with several international companies and marketed IQOS under a variety of names. However, the U.S. market proved to be more challenging.
In 2020, however, the FDA agreed that IQOS “significantly reduces exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals,” and PMI launched the product in the U.S. that year. After launching IQOS in a handful of states and gaining a single-digit share of the overall market, PMI suddenly found the door slammed shut on IQOS by a copyright infringement claim by BAT, the U.K.-based parent company of Reynolds American Inc (RAI).
In September 2021, the International Trade Commission (ITC) upheld an initial determination from May 2021 that IQOS infringed on two RAI patents. The ITC barred PMI’s then-partner, Altria Group, from importing PMI’s IQOS 2.4, IQOS 3 and IQOS 3 Duo products into the U.S.
Following the ITC ruling, PMI stated, “At the present time, we do not expect to have access to IQOS devices or Marlboro HeatSticks in 2022. However, we remain focused on returning IQOS to the market as soon as possible. Our teams are actively working on reentry plans, and we expect to be ready to bring IQOS back to U.S. consumers when available.”
In order to get its tobacco-heating device back on U.S. store shelves, in early 2022 PMI announced its plans to manufacture IQOS in the United States. In October 2022, PMI agreed to pay Altria Group approximately $2.7 billion for the exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the IQOS tobacco-heating system effective April 20, 2024.
“We remain committed to creating long-term value through our vision,” said Altria CEO Billy Gifford in a statement. “We believe that this agreement provides us with fair compensation and greater flexibility to allocate resources toward ‘moving beyond smoking.’”
In an interview with Bloomberg, PMI CEO Jacek Olczak said the company had planned to manufacture IQOS in the U.S. all along. “From the very beginning of us going to the FDA, we had in mind that IQOS would one day not only be sold in the U.S. but manufactured there, if you take into consideration the size of the market and the opportunity for IQOS,” he said. “It’s just happening sooner because of the ITC decision.”
In July 2020, the FDA authorized PMI and Altria to market IQOS with certain modified-exposure claims, giving the company a leg up over its rivals. PMI has not specified where it will be manufacturing IQOS but said it plans to sell IQOS in the U.S. again in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, overseas, specifically in Europe, IQOS stores are some of the most beautifully designed tobacco shops in the world. The products are available in 68 international markets, and PMI claims that “13.5 million adult smokers have made the switch from tobacco.”
PMI’s heated-tobacco products (HTPs) have been launched in key cities in Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, and in some duty-free shops.
PMI has marketed several HTPs under its IQOS brand, and the most popular versions today use “blade heating technology,” a proprietary system for its HEETS, or HeatSticks. That overall methodology encompasses several versions of IQOS.
The latest generation of IQOS, ILUMA, was released in 2021 and uses induction to heat the tobacco instead of the blade technology and requires no cleaning. These devices use specific heated-tobacco units called Terea Smartcore Sticks.
In 2022, PMI launched Bonds by IQOS, along with its compatible tobacco sticks, Blends, in a pilot market in the Philippines. The company intends to further commercialize the product into 2023. Equipped with “bladeless” resistive external heating technology, Bond emits 95 percent less harmful chemicals compared to cigarettes, according to PMI.
“Bonds by IQOS represents another step forward in our ambition to replace cigarettes with innovative, science-based, smoke-free alternatives,” said Olczak. “We know that no single smoke-free product will appeal to all adult smokers. Providing a range of alternatives to continued smoking—with a variety of taste, technology, usage and price options—is imperative and helps us to address a range of preferences as diverse as adult smokers themselves—ultimately encouraging them to leave cigarettes behind.”
PMI’s ambition is that by 2025 at least 40 million PMI cigarette smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke will have switched to smoke-free products. Furthermore, the company’s aim is that more than half of its net revenues will come from smoke-free products by 2025.
In 2018, IQOS opened its first “boutique store” in one of the most fashionable, popular areas of Sofia, Bulgaria.
“I’ve been here since we opened, and it was a madhouse back then,” said the store manager, who asked to remain unnamed. “Many smokers, and even nonsmokers, had heard about the innovative smoking products and were looking for ways to quit smoking. Here in Bulgaria, we have the worse percentage of smokers in all of Europe, and even though it’s dropped, the numbers are between 30 [percent and] 40 percent depending upon age segmentation.
“Even now, four years later, many tourists visiting this area are shocked to find a store like this. Most of them are current or past smokers and are used to seeing small, ugly tobacco shops, so seeing such a classy place as this excites them.”
In November 2002, PMI launched its IQOS Iluma Prime at Dubai Duty Free. The appearance of IQOS Iluma Prime in Dubai International Airport terminals 1 and 3 follows the initial market launch in Japan and Switzerland duty-free in 2021.
“The launch of the IQOS Iluma Prime, our most refined and advanced device yet, in Dubai Duty Free further demonstrates our constant commitment to delight our legal-age consumers in travel retail with our most premium and stylish product range,” PMI vice president of Duty Free Edvinas Katilius said during the Dubai opening.
The electronic nicotine-delivery systems road is a rocky one, and it is difficult to predict what innovation may be around the next corner. For IQOS, however, market growth is on the horizon.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.

December 26, 2022
Changes in Greece

An ancient tobacco powerhouse, Greece is now also home to a lively vaping business.
By Norm Bour
If someone asked you “Which country used to process the most tobacco a century ago?” your first answer would probably be the U.S.—and you’d be right. But what would your second choice be? I was shocked to find out it was Greece.
I was invited to travel through the northern part of Greece for a month, so I dug into the vape space there to see how it was doing compared to other countries, and I was surprised to find the Tobacco Museum of Municipality of Kavala, the first city we stayed in. It’s a rather long name, and I was taken aback since I had no idea that Greece, and specifically the city of Kavala, were important players in the tobacco world.
A week later, I stayed at a high-end resort in the city of Drama, further to the north, and discovered that this amazing hotel, which was totally renovated 10 years ago, started life in 1911 as a tobacco processing plant, employing a significant number of residents.
The tobacco that was grown in Greece, known as “basma,” was considered to be among the finest in the world, and the Greeks started cultivation about 200 years ago. By the late 1800s, Kavala had over 150 tobacco shops, and tobacco was big business through the 19th century until about 100 years ago.
The processing of tobacco leaves and the manufacturing of cigarettes played a key role in the country’s history and contributed to the prosperity of both Kavala and Drama along with the major city of Thessaloniki. It also played a huge part in improving workers’ rights in other industries and employed several female workers.
A century ago, Greece and Turkey were in turmoil in the aftermath of World War I and the Greco-Turkish War in 1922. There were massive relocations between the two countries, which caused huge unemployment.
Tobacco helped create a more stable workplace and economy and contributed to Greece’s increasing power in trade.
Tobacco in Europe took a different path than it did in America. Its history goes back to 1560 when the French ambassador to Portugal first introduced it to Catherine de Medici as a cure for migraines.
Usage spread to the masses, and about 2,000 smoking pipes dating back to the 17th century were found near Thessaloniki, Greece, during excavations. The growing Ottoman Empire got much of its tobacco from Greece, which at the time was under its rule.
Pipes back then were not just smoking utensils but also works of art. They became status symbols that indicated their owner’s position in society.
Smoking remains prevalent in Greece today. Even though incidence has declined, it is still quite popular among the young and old alike. Some 38.2 percent of Greeks aged 15 and up smoke, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey. The majority (51.2 percent) is male and about half that share is female.
Marios Zarnvidis, Smoker Steam vape shop
In Thessaloniki, I spoke with Marios Zarnvidis from the Smoker Steam vape shop, which opened in 2013. “In 2013 when we opened, having a vape device showed you were cool. The young kids were more focused on that than the health benefits,” he said. “We had four golden years from then until 2017.”
Then, Philip Morris International’s Papastratos subsidiary, one of the largest tobacco manufacturers in Greece, spent €300 million ($287.83 million) to convert one of its largest plants to exclusively manufacture its IQOS heat-not-burn product.
That severely impacted Smoker Steam and other shops as people tried these new devices. Over the years, smokers gravitated to their devices of choice. Smoker Steam’s business is now more consistent, but its heydays are gone.
“Today, about 20 percent of the younger people I know smoke, and their friends who do not [smoke] try to discourage them,” says Zarnvidis. “Our parents’ generation didn’t know of the dangers, but today’s kids do, and they try to support their smoking friends. My father started smoking at age six and finally quit in his mid-30s, and I only smoked for a few years in high school when many of us did—but now I’m 36 and would rather vape.”
Cigarette and nicotine taxes impact vapor products as well, but e-cigarettes still cost about one-third the price of conventional cigarettes.
Disposables are new to Greece, and much of the demand came from tourists who had become accustomed to them in their home countries.
Zarnvidis sells a lot of 10 mL bottles, which surprised me. He explained that they have a high number of attorneys and other professionals who try to be discrete, so they prefer smaller products overall. Those bottles sell for €5 to €6 each.
Smoker Stream’s top sellers include Alter Ego, a Greek company, and fruit-flavored liquids are still his biggest draw followed by tobacco-flavored liquids. Dinner Lady was a big seller along with Five Pawns, both of which have a significant U.S. presence, but most of his products are made in Greece.
The vape industry remains under a cloud of paranoia as every year the government threatens to outlaw vape, prompting vapers to hoard products.
“I hate it when that happens since everyone comes in and stocks up, and then we don’t see them again for a long time,” says Zarnvidis. “I’d much rather see consistent cash flow.”
Despite the challenges, Greek businessmen are still opening vape shops, often driven by passion.
Lambros Vlahopoulos opened Serial Vapers three years ago in Ioannina, a town of about 65,000 people. He considers himself to be a hobbyist because he believes in the benefits of vape over smoking. Vlahopoulos says he opened his shop to “spread the word” rather than to make money.
“This shop is the story of my life and includes many collectibles from my youth,” he says. “Everything inside, all the woodwork, I did myself. I was a heavy smoker since I was 13, and when I discovered vape, I knew this shop, which took eight years to open, was going to be a reflection of my journey.”
Unlike many of his counterparts in the U.S., Vlahopoulos does not sell disposables. He remains old school, blowing big clouds during our talk. As much as he is not money driven, he insists on carrying only refillable devices and liquids.
“You can buy disposables anywhere, at any gas station or convenience store,” he says. “You never know what’s inside. I want to know my customers, teach and train them so they can respect the process of quitting smoking.”
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.

November 1, 2022
Vaping Under Fire

Credit: Sanchairat
Many countries continue to limit access or have outright banned vaping and e-cigarette products.
By Norm Bour
As much as we would like to think that vaping and the sale of vape products is universally accepted, that is not the case. The world has changed a lot over the past 10 years, and the medical community’s support has carried some weight, but old customs and rituals die hard. Here is an overview of where the status of vape remains iffy.
Turkey
You can use vape products where tobacco is permitted, but the Turkish government is vehemently anti-vape—regardless of the medical documentation that shows the advantages of vaping over combustible cigarettes. Since 2009, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led the campaign against all tobacco products, including cigarettes, regardless of their popularity.
Turkey banned the import of e-cigarettes and related products on Feb. 25, 2020. The ban covers e-cigarettes, accessories, spare parts and solutions (e-liquids) as well as e-cigarette products that use heating or incineration, like electronic hookahs. The country had already banned the sale of electronic cigarettes.
Erdogan’s aggressive posture has resulted in the seizure of almost 18 million packs of cigarettes in 2020 and 140,000 e-cigarettes. The government offers a hotline for people to call and blow the whistle on illegal products, and 1,500 teams scour the country doing random inspections. For vapers, the online channel remains open, and there are many foreigners who vape in the street without concern.
India
With a population of 1.38 billion, India has banned vaping products since 2019. With an estimated 120 million people lighting up, India has the dubious honor of having 12 percent of the world’s cigarette smokers. The country loses about 1 million people per year to tobacco-related illnesses.
India’s aggressive anti-smoking posture has proven successful as the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the past 20 years. In 2000, it was estimated that one-third of the male population smoked, with 5.7 percent of the female population smoking. A decade later, those numbers had dropped to 23 percent for men and 2.5 percent for women. Currently, an estimated 14 percent of the country’s population smokes.
With a 28 percent luxury tax on tobacco, there are huge incentives to quitting smoking in India. The bad news is that vaping products are lumped into the tobacco pile, but evidence for the relative safety of e-cigarettes is gaining ground. The anti-vape campaign was geared toward the young smokers, but there may be light at the end of this tunnel.
Under the guise of preventing potential health risks to the country’s youth, India banned the “import, manufacture, sale, advertisement, storage and distribution” of e-cigarettes in September 2019. However, according to Research and Markets, the Indian e-cigarette market reached a value of $7.8 million in 2018, and it is further predicted to witness a CAGR of 26.4 percent during the forecast period (2019-2024) even with the ban in place.
There is very little regulatory enforcement for vaping products in India. Vaping products are even being displayed on some store shelves. A few of the biggest paanwalas in the cosmopolitan cities reportedly sell Juul and other high-end hardware. It’s not plainly obvious everywhere, and the specialist “vape only” vendors are all clandestine, according to several sources. Most of the specialists are discerning and do not entertain new customers without a reference from a known customer.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia has been a teeter-totter in terms of vapor regulations. In October of 2021, it declared all nicotine products illegal without a doctor’s prescription. The prescription is intended only for the patient and may not be shared or sold. The sole light at the end of this this tunnel is that nicotine- free products are excluded from this heavy-handed ban.
Devices and liquids can be sold in all eight territories, though advertising and promotion is legal in some but illegal in others. Spotty monitoring and enforcement have resulted in a lively online trade in vapor products.
Compared to many countries, the perceived “problems” of youth smoking are modest with percentages of vapers and smokers under 20 percent among different age groups. According to 2021 research from the Australian National University, about 16 percent of current e-cigarette users in Australia are non-smokers who have never inhaled tobacco, while the remaining third are ex-smokers. There are about 400,000 e-cigarette users in Australia.
While often lumped in with Australia by outsiders, New Zealand has followed its own, more reasonable, path in vapor regulation. The small island country of just 5 million people estimates that 11.6 percent of its population smokes. Its priority is on reducing underage vaping and smoking.
The Middle East
Excluding the North African countries sometimes included in the Middle East, this part of the world is home to almost 0.5 billion people and encompasses about 20 percent of the Muslim world. While Islam frowns on tobacco use, many Muslim countries have high smoking rates. While tobacco use has been grudgingly tolerated, vaping was initially disdained, with some countries banning the practice. That is changing, as was evidenced in September 2021 when the World Vape Show was held in Dubai, which has now legalized vaping.
Tim Phillips, managing director of ECigIntelligence, says the United Arab Emirates is leading the Middle East in vape product sales and access, but considering it started from scratch, the numbers are still small. As tobacco-oriented as this part of the world is, buyers prefer flavored liquids with three out of four sales being sweeter fruit flavors followed by menthol flavors.
Across the Middle East, the rules are in constant flux. Currently, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain offer legalized vape, but Qatar and Oman do not. Market intelligence company Mordor Intelligence projects a growth rate of almost 10 percent through 2025 in the regional vapor market.
In late 2020, a Euromonitor International study found only a very small minority of smokers used e-cigarettes to quit smoking in the Middle East region. Analysts found just 1.8 percent of smokers in the region took up alternatives to conventional cigarettes in 2020. The figure is up from 1.4 percent in 2017 but it remains significantly low when compared to other parts of the world.
South America/Latin America
On the other side of the globe, South America’s 433 million people also face an ever-changing landscape of vaping laws. The largest country, Brazil, allows vaping, with some restrictions in enclosed areas. Sales are highly regulated by the Health Surveillance Agency, which closely monitors underage sales, though enforcement of sales and production is weak.
No. 2 by population, Argentina has banned vaping for a decade and shows no sign of changing its policy. The ban extends to nicotine-free products, and there are virtually no sales, production or importation of e-cigarettes. Ironically, Argentina reportedly accounts for as much as 15 percent of total tobacco consumption in South America.
Contrary to some of its neighbors, Peru has been open-minded about vaping—to the point where the government appears to turn a blind eye to the practice. With an estimated 2.3 million smokers—just under 10 percent of the population—Peru has no official numbers on the vapers and vape products. It seems the country has higher priorities and has decided to leave vapers alone.
According to Mordor Intelligence, as enforcement of e-cigarette laws are often open to local authorities, vape shops are often found in places where they are technically illegal in the region. In the entire region only five countries allow the legal sale of e-cigarettes: Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.
Following the recent enactment of smoke-free laws in Paraguay, every South American country has now banned vaping and smoking in most public places. Under Decree No. 4624, approved by Paraguay’s presidency on Dec. 29, consuming lit, heated, or electronic tobacco products is permitted only in uncrowded open air public spaces that are not transit areas for nonsmokers.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com

February 16, 2022
Split Decision

VapeX in Split, Croatia recently celebrated 10 years of helping smokers switch.
By Norm Bour
When people want to know about the European vape industry, they normally refer to the Big Three countries: France, Germany and Italy. Let’s face it—these are also the most populated EU nations and most popular tourism destinations, and even though they are “over there,” many Americans consider them just foreign versions of America. And let’s not talk about the United Kingdom, which is trying to find its own place in the world post-Brexit …
Europe consists of 44 countries, per the United Nations, though some are debatable since they straddle Europe as well as Asia. Eastern Europe, which encompasses many of the formerly Soviet bloc nations that abandoned communism in the early 1990s, is in a class by itself since they are not quite as economically developed as Western Europe, though they are picking up speed.
Eastern Europe, specifically Croatia, from where I am writing this report, is part of the world I love the most. And they do have vape shops, as well as CBD shops, so I wanted to get a snapshot of the vape space over here.
We were lucky enough to find VapeX right up the street from where I am staying, the oldest vape shop in Split, and probably one of the oldest ones in Croatia since it just celebrated its 10-year anniversary last year. That puts them in the olden days, even compared to many U.S. shops.
Owner Igor Eberhardt, 51, has as much passion for vaping as anyone I’ve ever met. Like many, he is not a vaper, nor was he a smoker; he is a guy with deep convictions about the benefits of vape as a smoking cessation device.
VapeX was started in 2010 by Teo Dogas, a former professional water polo star who was part of the Croatia National team that won the World Championship in 2007. One of its sponsors was a brand new vape liquid company, Ovale, from Italy, and when Dogas ended his career, Ovale offered him a job.
Though Dogas was not a smoker, he did believe in the benefits of vaping, so he opened this shop in Split, which initially sold only Ovale liquid. It was the first vape shop in Split and probably one of the first in Croatia if not in all of Eastern Europe.
Dogas later brought Eberhardt in as a partner, and a few years ago another partner, Mark Williams, joined them. Williams, who came from the U.K. vape scene, brought in a whole new dynamic, and they started carrying other liquids from around the world.
Over the years, they have attempted to open other locations, but onerous regulations in Croatia made it challenging. They still also have a shop and distro in the U.K. “We are not treated equally here in Split,” Eberhardt said. “While most businesses can operate freely and openly, we must keep our windows covered with a film that almost makes us look like a sex shop. We also have to cover our shelves occasionally, which takes away the beauty of our selections.”
The company did not receive assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic either. “Many, if not most businesses here, were given some breaks to help them through the pandemic, but we were not. We got no tax benefits, no compensation, and we were shunned, along with just a few industries, like casinos, which also got no help.”
He also mentioned that the Croatian government, like most governments worldwide, views his operation as a tobacco shop, which never gets much respect or help. The problem here, like in many European countries, is that smoking and tobacco are part of the culture, the heritage. The smoking population is slow to adapt since many have been smoking since childhood with the total acceptance of their parents and family.
Of course, this is not just a European legacy but is prevalent in the Middle East, parts of the Far East and Latin America too. Old habits die hard, and it may take generations for vaping to equal or surpass tobacco usage in Croatia.
I asked about the company’s clientele, who are generally middle-aged and split almost equally between male and female, but he confessed, “Women seem to be more open to alternatives, and they are starting to understand that smoking is not sexy anymore.”
As an unmarried man, Eberhardt personally chooses not to date smokers and tries to share his passion for vaping with them.
“The problem is, most Croatian smokers are not aware of the dangers—or of the alternatives,” he shared, “and most don’t care. In many cases, people don’t want to talk about the dangers of smoking, almost as though they don’t want to admit that they have been ignorant of the health risks.”
This sounds like a don’t ask/don’t tell mindset, and even after sharing with his customers that smoking is five times more expensive, that does not always sway them. Partner Williams, in addition to the new product mix, also brought along new education.
The shop formerly got most of its inventory from the U.K., but that country’s departure from the EU has complicated trade, so now it imports from other countries, especially from Malaysia and the Far East.
As for the company’s brands mix, it proudly carries about seven of the top 10 international flavors and usually sees American e-liquid brand Glas as its top seller followed by Fizzy Juice and Empire Brew, which are all fruit flavors. That has been a noteworthy trend to the VapeX owners as fruity flavors have replaced tobacco flavors, and for now, all are legal.
Other bestselling brands in the shop are Dinner Lady, Pachamama, Charlie’s Chalk Dust and Don Cristo, a premium Canadian tobacco flavor. VapeX also specializes in short-fills and is an exclusive distributor of the popular Mr. Vape brand.
Croatian vape shops have been growing quickly over the past few years, and to stay ahead of the crowd, VapeX plans to open a lounge where people can hang out and get educated, according to Dogas.
We talked about “other products,” and he confirmed that cannabis is still illegal, though CBD is not. But the company carries only a few bottles of liquid while the local CBD-only shop stays away from vape products. It seems they have set an agreeable compromise and avoid each other’s turf.
The future looks promising for Split’s largest vape shop. It adheres to the EU Tobacco Product Directive (TPD) regulations, as does the rest of the EU and U.K., and they all operate on the same level ground. The owner’s hope is that TPD opens up the market even more and that the Croatian government finally recognizes what a benefit vaping offers over tobacco.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.

December 27, 2021
Dubai WVS: Grand Slam

QBM pulls off a remarkably successful vaping exhibition in an uncertain environment.
Story and Photos by Norm Bour
It’s not often that a rookie gets a chance to come up to the plate and hit a Grand Slam home run, but that is exactly what happened when the Dubai World Vape Expo hit the ground at full speed and never let up. Considering that this was Quartz Business Media’s (QBM) first vape expo and the fact that this was the first truly international show in a year and a half—and considering this show was held in a country where up until a year ago vaping was illegal—well, what you have is a trifecta.
OK, enough sports analogies.
The industry has been hungry—starving—for live events, and in this not-quite post-Covid period, this was a risky move in many ways.
Vaping continues to be under attack in the U.S., with the Food and Drug Administration still looking for ways to make life difficult, and even in Europe and the rest of the world, many people still consider vaping to be as dangerous as smoking, regardless of what the Royal College and Public Health England say.
Science be damned, media loves controversy, and vaping can be a lightning rod.
This was my first visit to Dubai, and aside from Singapore, this is probably the cleanest, most polite and grandiose city I have visited. Considering that Dubai strives for many firsts, this first vape show falls in line.
The Burj Khalifa, at 2,722 ft high, 160 floors, is the tallest building in the world, and holds many international records. The Dubai Mall, sitting at the foot of the Burj, is the largest mall in the world at almost six million square ft and could take days to see all the shops. Around the corner, launching the end of October, is Ain Dubai, the soon to be largest Ferris Wheel in the world, at 820 ft, twice the height of the London Eye.
There was a definite British vibe here, and that makes sense since QBM is based in Surrey, U.K. Many of the exhibitors were U.K. companies, and the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), helmed by John Dunne, brought many of the speakers and guidance to the gathering.
I asked Dunne if there was any connection between the Dubai event and the U.K. vaping industry, and he said there was a definite kinship.
“The British vape companies are very keen on international expansion, and the Middle East is a brand new market. Until recently, vaping was illegal in Dubai, UAE and other countries nearby, but the government is now recognizing the benefits of vaping. There were several Chinese and American companies who were unable to attend, so that changed the composition of the attendees.”
The event was intended to be even larger than what it was, which was about 200 exhibitors, and without travel restrictions it would have been even more diverse. Considering this was the first international show in almost two years, those are impressive numbers.
And the eyes of the regulators were on the show floor. I was told that government people were checking the registration process all the way to the show floor and making sure that masks were used, vaping was done in the appropriate areas and no one was abusing the event.
I asked Dunne if he was overall pleased with this show, and he responded, “Absolutely! I’ve seen vape shows develop over the years, and many of the early ones were embarrassing. They were more party and less business, but as the vaping world has matured, so has the event space. We had many conversations with the regulators and had to share with them that vaping is a harm-reduction product and not a smoking product. Since we have had years of experience in the U.K., and since Public Health England has been generally pro vape, we hope that can fast-track the acceptability over here.”
Dunne appreciates that the U.K. keeps things simple from a regulatory perspective, especially compared to the U.S., and he hopes that the Middle East uses more common sense and less bureaucracy.
There were several American companies there, including Charlie’s Chalk Dust, Coastal Clouds, Innevape and The Finest. I asked Jeff Connell, with Innevape, about this show: “This is much bigger than most [events], and we were able to form some strategic partnerships with Middle East distributors, which brings us a whole new market. We’ve seen more activity both in the number of people here, along with their interest in spending money and committing to doing business.”
Salim Lallas with Bawadi Vape, based in Dubai, was ecstatic over the event. His company has been in business since 2016. “Back then our vape community was very small, very intimate, very social,” he recalls. “Now it is becoming more mainstream and less personal, but much larger, and hopefully, more professional. I think the government knew they really couldn’t control it and also that what we were doing was not really dangerous. So rather than fight a losing battle, they concluded that they should learn how to work with us.”
Of the many dozen shows that I have attended worldwide, this one struck a critical balance between business and fun, and based on conversations with many of the attendees, business was definitely getting done!
Alan Caddick helmed the speaking program and worked closely with John Dunne. Their goal was to develop speaking programs that would draw people in.
I asked him if the recent Covid travel restrictions hampered speaker’s commitments. “Yes, absolutely,” he said. “The pandemic has affected our timing, and we had to reschedule twice. Everyone had to jump through hoops to get here, and we appreciated all those that came in person. Being a speaker involves work and preparation, and the extra Covid tests made it even more challenging.”
The pandemic brought some positive changes to the world of events and meetings, and remote sessions have been the norm for the past 18 months. For speakers that were unable to attend, Zoom has filled in that gap.
“No question, technology has made this show much easier than if we did not have it,” Caddick confessed. “We have speakers from Australia, South Africa, the U.S. and England joining us live, so once we account for time zones, it’s just a matter of plugging them in.”
The beauty of the online sessions was the fantastic room-length screen, which afforded great video and accommodated panel sessions.
I spoke with Jake Nixon, event sales manager, and asked, “Why Dubai?” and he replied, “Dubai is a gateway for the whole world. They have an amazing airport, lots of free zones, and we think Dubai will play a big part in the future of vaping. Dubai was always our No. 1 location when we started with this process a long time ago, and we are happy that we were able to pull this off.
“The U.K. hasn’t had an event since before Covid, so that is why we planned our next one in London just a few months from now. We cut our teeth here, and we have learned a lot about the vaping world. This was our first time dealing in that space and found it much more fun than many other industries.”
The organizers plan their next event for Dec. 10–11 in London at the ExCeL Center. They hope that, by that time, more people will be able to, and feel comfortable traveling, but they understand that many speakers will be joining them virtually once more.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com or +1 949 495 6162.

October 26, 2021