<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of and attitudes towards existing wind farms, as well as the perceived impact of wind farms on tourism, are examined in this article with reference to a built heritage site in the Portuguese countryside. Based on a set of semi-structured interviews, the paper sheds light on the positive impact that the community’s or local actors’ involvement in the constitution, management and decision-making processes has on the residents’ perceptions and attitudes regarding wind farms, and also on the trade-off with the perceived effect of wind farms on local tourism. Moreover, it shows that although most visitors criticised the proximity of wind turbines to medieval architecture, a clear majority of them accepted their presence and virtually all of them stated that these facilities had no impact on their choice of destination.</p></abstract>

Residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of and attitudes towards existing wind farms, as well as the perceived impact of wind farms on tourism, are examined in this article with reference to a built heritage site in the Portuguese countryside. Based on a set of semi-structured interviews, the paper sheds light on the positive impact that the community’s or local actors’ involvement in the constitution, management and decision-making processes has on the residents’ perceptions and attitudes regarding wind farms, and also on the trade-off with the perceived effect of wind farms on local tourism. Moreover, it shows that although most visitors criticised the proximity of wind turbines to medieval architecture, a clear majority of them accepted their presence and virtually all of them stated that these facilities had no impact on their choice of destination.

Wind farms and rural tourism: A Portuguese case study of residents’ and visitors’ perceptions and attitudes

Moravian Geographical Reports

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of and attitudes towards existing wind farms, as well as the perceived impact of wind farms on tourism, are examined in...

Wind farms and rural tourism: A Portuguese case study of residents’ and visitors’ perceptions and attitudes

Published Online: Dec 29, 2017

Page range: 248 - 256

Received: Nov 17, 2016

Accepted: Jun 08, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mgr-2017-0021

Keywords
wind farms, built heritage sites, rural tourism, residents’ perceptions, visitors’ perceptions, Portugal

© 2017 Luís Silva et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Wind farms and rural tourism: A Portuguese case study of residents’ and visitors’ perceptions and attitudes

Published Online: Dec 29, 2017

Page range: 248 - 256

Received: Nov 17, 2016

Accepted: Jun 08, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mgr-2017-0021

Keywordswind farms, built heritage sites, rural tourism, residents’ perceptions, visitors’ perceptions, Portugal

© 2017 Luís Silva et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
wind farms, built heritage sites, rural tourism, residents’ perceptions, visitors’ perceptions, Portugal