A Survey of the highlands area in Scotland shows that 40% of visitors would avoid or eliminate areas with turbines.

Like Maine and Scotland Upper Michigan is an area whose pristine countryside and unspoiled vistas attract visitors from around the world.  A study by Views of Scotland found that:

  • 80% of visitors came to the area for its ‘beautiful scenery
  • almost all said they valued the chance to see unspoiled nature
  • more than half agreed that wind-power sites spoiled the look of the countryside
  • more than 25% said they would avoid parts of the countryside with wind developments
  • following a visit to a region with wind turbines, 15% said they ‘definitely’ would not return.
  • over 90% of those operating tourism-related businesses are against the
    wind power developments

Tourists shun areas hit by wind turbine ‘blight’

More than half of tourists to Scotland would rather not visit scenic areas dominated by man-made structures such as wind farms, a YouGov poll suggests.

A survey carried out on behalf of the John Muir Trust (JMT) found that 55% of respondents were “less likely” to venture into areas of the countryside industrialised by giant turbines, electricity pylons and super-quarries.

 

Wind farms and tourism in Scotland: A review with a focus on mountaineering and landscape

The conclusions in this review highlight how many of the studies have not taken into account areas where the landscape itself is a major tourism draw.
This also points out how when data is collected during the construction phase the numbers are not accurate.

“Most importantly, the study cannot be extrapolated to claim that there would be no effect in areas where the tourism market is sensitive to landscape since it included only one such wind farm and the outcome data for that wind farm is confounded by continuing construction expenditure in the area.”