Wind farms will kill tourism: Trump

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25 April 2012

US tycoon Donald Trump has told the Scottish Parliament that wind farms will destroy tourism.

The outspoken businessman is giving his views to MSPs probing the Scottish Government's renewable energy targets. Mr Trump is an outspoken critic of wind farms and bitterly opposes an offshore turbine development near the site of his golf course in Aberdeenshire.

He offered support to technologies such as wind and wave, but warned: "Wind turbines, made in China, are going to be the destruction - almost a total destruction - of your tourism industry."

A survey for tourism body VisitScotland found that four out of five people said wind farms do not affect their decisions over where to holiday in the UK. The Scottish Government wants renewable energy sources to meet the existing demand for electricity by 2020.

Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, has defended his push for a "renewables revolution". In an earlier letter to Mr Trump, he said: "It is my belief that Scotland's great cities and ports are ideally placed to become a key hub for the rapidly growing multibillion-pound offshore renewables industry."

But Mr Trump told MSPs: "Many countries have decided they don't want wind, because it doesn't work without massive subsidies, it kills massive amounts of birds and wildlife and there are lots of other reasons."

However, SNP MSPs on the committee pressed Mr Trump on his belief that wind farms would damage the tourism sector.

Chic Brodie said there had been a 9% increase in tourism visits to Scotland last year and pointed to research by VisitScotland in which 80% of people in the UK said the presence of a wind farm would not affect their decision about where to stay when on a holiday or short break in Britain.

The South of Scotland MSP asked the US tycoon what analysis he had that "supports the assertions you have made against wind". But Mr Trump insisted he was "an expert on tourism".

He told MSPs: "I have won many many awards over the last short period of time, let alone long period of time. My clubs are rated amongst the best in the world. I am an expert on tourism. If you dot your landscape with these horrible, horrible structures, you will do tremendous damage."

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