| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind farms ‘pose risk to mountain tourism in Scotland’
Credit: Chris Foote | STV News | stv.tv ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Wind farms are posing a serious risk to tourism in Scotland, according to a new poll.
Mountaineering Scotland surveyed 1400 of its members and found about 23% avoid visiting areas where there are wind farms.
It said a similar drop in the number of hillwalkers visiting Scotland’s mountains could take a significant toll on the £630m walking tourism economy.
But the same poll shows 75% of members surveyed have not changed their behaviour because of wind farms. About 2% say they are more likely to visit areas with turbines.
Mountaineering Scotland chief executive David Gibson said: “This survey gives us some important evidence about the real impact wind farms in inappropriate mountain locations can have on the behaviour of hillwalkers and potentially other mountain users – but the impact goes more widely than this.
“If hillwalkers avoid visiting areas affected by wind development then local communities will lose the money hill walking visitors bring to shops, places to stay and other visitor-related businesses.
“A 20% reduction in hillwalkers could easily make the difference between profit and loss for small enterprises in mountain areas across Scotland.”
A survey carried out by Mountaineering Scotland in 2013 found 56% of members believed they would avoid areas with wind farms in the future. But only 23% of members actually changed their behaviour over the next three years.
The group said that is a “testament to the success of campaigners”.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=79130 ]
