Onshore Wind and Tourism in Scotland

Analysis of 44 wind farm case studies in Scotland finds no evidence of a link between wind farm development and trends in tourism employment.

BiGGAR Economics has published our latest research into the relationship between the onshore wind and tourism sectors in Scotland.

The first commercial scale wind farms in Scotland were established in the mid 1990s and so more than 25 years later if wind farms have discouraged tourism activity, there should be some evidence of such effects. This research has looked for such evidence.

Wind Farms and Tourism Trends Across Scotland

Across Scotland, there has been a significant increase in onshore wind energy since 2009. The number of turbines increased from 1,082 in 2009 to 3,772 in 2019, and the installed capacity increased from 1.9 GW to 8.0GW.

Employment in tourism-related sectors in Scotland also grew during this decade, an increase of 20%.

The growth in employment in tourism-related sectors has not been consistent across all parts of Scotland. The growth in tourism employment has been strongest in predominantly rural local authority areas, such as Argyll and Bute, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, East Lothian, Highland and Stirling whilst there have been reductions in tourism-related employment in some central belt local authorities.

Analysis of the rates of change in the number of onshore wind turbines and in tourism-related employment in local authority areas, finds that there is no correlation between the two factors. The tourism economy in local authorities that had seen the largest increase in onshore wind energy activity had performed just as well, if not better, than other areas in Scotland.

The analysis of trends at the local authority area found no relationship between the growth in the number of wind turbines and the level of tourism-related employment.

Tourism economy performance in wind farm locations

Our research also analysed trends in tourism employment in the immediate vicinity of wind farm developments. This covered 44 onshore wind projects in Scotland.

The analysis considered how tourism employment in the area around these wind farms performed compared to their wider local authority.

This found that in the majority of cases, trends in tourism-related employment in the wind farm locality had outperformed the local authority area in which they were based between 2015 and 2019. For example, tourism-related employment around Stronelairg Wind Farm increased by 43% between 2015 and 2019, compared to 21% growth across the wider Highland Local Authority area. Therefore, tourism-related employment in the locality of Stronelairg Wind Farm grew 22% more than the wider local authority.

The level of difference between the employment growth in the locality of each wind farm and its wider local authority is shown below.

* These sites are adjacent

This analysis has found no negative relationship between the development of onshore wind and local tourism-related employment

Conclusions

This study was undertaken to find empirical evidence of a relationship between the development of onshore wind farms and the tourism sector in Scotland.

This research has analysed trends in tourism employment in the localities of 44 wind farms developed in recent years, providing a substantial evidence base. The study found no relationship between tourism employment and wind farm development, at the level of the Scottish economy, across local authority areas nor in the locality of wind farm sites.

Further Reading

The full report can be downloaded below.