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Windfarms would reduce tourism to Scotland, study concludes
EDINBURGH, Scotland, UK: Scotland could lose GBP 12.8 in tourism income and 727jobs as a result of windfarms, according to a report prepared for the Scottish Executive. Glasgow Caledonian University assessed the likely impact of windfarms on tourism in four areas. For each region, researchers estimated the impact on the tourism economy by 2015 of all the windfarms needed to meet the renewables obligation, compared to a situation where there were no windfarms. It estimated that Stirling, Perth & Kinross would lose £6.3 million in tourism income and 339 jobs; Dumfries & Galloway £4.1 million and 277 jobs; the Borders £1.7 million and 81 jobs, and Caithness & Sutherland £700,000 and 30 jobs, but the totals cannot be aggregated to give a Scotland-wide impact as many tourists who decided to not visit an area with many windfarms were likely to visit elsewhere in Scotland, explains ‘Economic Impacts of Wind Farms on Scottish Tourism.' “This research has shown that, even using a worst case scenario, the impact of current applications would be very small and for three of the four case study areas, would hardly be noticed,” it concludes. Caithness & Sutherland has “an extremely fragile economy” and, while renewables offer an alternative to the declining economy, wind turbines “would negatively affect those tourists to Caithness looking for scenery and tranquillity.” “The research suggests that there is a need to make clearer to the general public that in some ‘scenic/wilderness' areas, they will not see large commercial windfarms and that some other areas are positively marketed as green centres of renewable energy,” it continues. “In this context, it should be noted that this research suggests that a few very large farms are better than a large number of small farms. A number of medium size farms dispersed in a relatively small area so that they become contiguous, is also not desirable. The current policy on cumulative effects should thus be maintained.” The report relates to the impact on future jobs from tourism spending and does not consider the incremental jobs created by the wind energy industry. A related survey showed that 39% of respondents are ‘positive' about windfarms while 36% had no opinion and 25% were negative. A significant minority, 20% to 30% of tourists, preferred landscapes without windfarms. Three-quarters of tourists felt windfarms had a positive or neutral effect on the landscape while 97% said windfarms would have no impact on their decision to visit Scotland again. Extensive windfarm developments would reduce revenue growth by 0.18% of tourist spending by 2015, which equates to £7.6 million of expenditure against current tourism revenues of £4.2 billion. “This research confirms that this government's ambitious targets on renewable energy and tourism are entirely compatible,” says energy minister Jim Mather. “It provides further evidence to support our approach to progress the right developments in the right location.” “Harnessing our renewables potential, while driving an increase in tourism revenue, will bring sustainable economic growth to all parts of Scotland ,” he adds. “We want Scotland to become the green energy capital of Europe , utilising the whole renewables mix from biomass to the energy we can generate from wave and tide." The Scottish Government's targets are to generate 50% of Scotland 's electricity from renewables by 2020, and grow tourism revenues by 50% in the ten years to 2015. “This research set out to establish if meeting targets on renewables would significantly impact on the possibility of meeting tourism targets,” the report notes. “Our overall conclusion is that the effects are so small that, provided planning and marketing are carried out effectively, there is no reason why the two are incompatible.”
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