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Renewables and tourism targets 'compatible' |
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Thursday, 13 March 2008 |
Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Minister Jim Mather has said that harnessing Scotland’s renewables potential is compatible with a growth in tourism.
He was speaking after new research found that three quarters of tourists surveyed for the study into the Economic Impacts of Wind Farms on Scottish Tourism felt wind farms had a positive or neutral effect on the landscape. 97 per cent of tourists in the sample said wind farms would have no impact on their decision to visit Scotland again.
Extensive wind farm developments would cause an estimated reduction in revenue growth of 0.18 per cent of tourist spending by 2015. This effect equates to £7.6m of expenditure against current tourism revenues of £4.2bn.
Mather said: “This research confirms that this Government's ambitious targets on renewable energy and tourism are entirely compatible. 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.
“The study looked at potential impacts if all planned onshore wind farms are approved, but we know that not every wind farm application, either through the planning system or under the Electricity Act, will receive consent.
“That's why our renewables policy is more than just onshore wind - 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 demand from renewables by 2020, and grow tourism revenues by 50 per cent in the ten years to 2015.
The report also offers practical guidance for assessing the likely impact of a proposed wind farm on tourism, and a summary of the research findings can be read here.
One person has commented on this article. 1. Renewables and tourism targets 'compatible'
Neil Birnie, Director, Wildernes, Unregistered I am very concerned at the survey mentioned and would be intrigued to learn more about the dynamic of the visitors surveyed.
Wilderness Scotland, the country's leading ecotourism business and winner of the Scottish Tourism Business of the Year in 2005, conducted a survey among 1200 clients in 2006 where 91.4% of those surveyed felt that significant land based wind power development in Scotland would result in them considering a holiday elsewhere.
Two further 2006 surveys conducted among the members of the Wild Scotland (the association of wildlife tourism operators) and Activity Scotland (association of activity operators) demonstrated that the vast majority of operators felt land based wind power development in wild and natural areas of Scotland would impact negatively on their businesses.
A recent VisitScotland survey outlined that the "overwhelming" number of visitors to Scotland listed the unspoiled landscapes as the main reason they chose to holiday in Scotland.
I imagine that the tourists surveyed in the recent study to which Mr Mather refers did not represent an accurate cross-section of visitors to Scotland and in particular, did not account for the great majority of visitors for whom nature and scenery is of primary importance.
We fully support the government's desire and commitment to develop renewable energy. We simply want this process to properly and accurately assess the impact on Scottish tourism.
We believe that in addition to a far stronger emphasis on encouraging reduction of current energy consumption, any wind power development should take place on land which is already used for industry or intensive agriculture, rather than in our pristine wild and natural areas. To this end, we will be contacting the minister to learn more and will conduct a further survey of Wilderness Scotland clients to gauge current attitudes within our sector of the industry and thereby better inform the government's research process.
Neil Birnie, Director
Wilderness Scotland
2005 VisitScotland Scottish Tourism Business of the Year
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