Scottish tourism chiefs have admitted for the first time that wind farms could drive tourists away.
VisitScotland has said an application to put turbines on a site north of Dumfries could have a ‘detrimental effect’ on tourism, reports the Daily Mail.
Its statement comes after Alex Salmond claimed wind farms ‘enhance our appeal as a country’.
VisitScotland says it does not oppose wind farms in principle and earlier this year it published a survey which concluded four out of five tourists would not be put off visiting Scotland by the turbines.
However, it has admitted that a ten-turbine wind farm at Minnygap, Dumfriesshire, on the side of coast-to-coast walk called Southern Upland Way, could hurt tourism.
VisitScotland said: "There have been a number of applications for wind farm developments along the route of the walk. Should all of these be granted, there could be a cumulative detrimental effect on walkers."
There are as many as 2,700 turbines north of the Border and seven applications a day are made to councils to erect more.
Opponents have warned that if every planned turbine goes ahead, there could be more than 5,000 turbines blanketing Scotland.
