Tourists’ perceptions of wind turbines: conceptualizations of rural space in sustainability transitions

Abstract

Concerns about the effects of climate change have led to an interest in identifying ways to foster sustainability transitions. In the Global North, a key approach is to eventually eliminate dependence on carbon emitting energy while moving towards renewable sources, including wind power. Since wind farms require vast amounts of land, inevitably this explains the presence of such installations in many rural regions. This situation has alarmed various stakeholders, including those involved in tourism, who see such developments as threats to idyllic notions of rurality and, by default, to the transformation of the countryside for visitor experiences. Through a series of case studies in rural Sweden, we explore the attitudes of tourists towards the presence of wind farms in the landscape. Overall, study respondents recognize the need for such installations since most accept the necessity to embark on sustainable energy transitions. In this way, they understand that many parts of rural Sweden are transforming into spaces where sustainable energy future must be negotiated. Ultimately, sustainability transitions lead to the rethinking of conventional perceptions around rural space and tourism. We suggest that geographical research on sustainability transitions in tourism should account for conceptions of rurality that involve assemblages of imagination, place framing, and power relations in sustainability transitions. This conceptualization is necessary for achieving just and sustainable energy futures.

Keywords:

• Landscape
• place framing
• renewable energy
• rural tourism
• sustainability transitions
• wind power
• sweden

Introduction

Addressing grand societal challenges related to unsustainable patterns of consumption and production requires a radical shift towards new kinds of socio-technical systems (Köhler et al., 2019). In this context of pending sustainability transition, many rural regions are defined and developed as spaces of renewable resource harnessing and capital accumulation (Kitchen & Marsden, 2009; Marsden, 2016). With sustainability transitions, rural landscapes have become central elements towards fulfilling national goals of energy sustainability. That large spaces are needed to produce renewable energy infrastructure (e.g. wind farms) means that these must be built in sparsely populated areas (Naumann & Rudolph, 2020).

Renewable energy installations aim to contribute to the global production of green energy and to economic growth in regions, but this infrastructure unavoidably impacts local ecosystems, human well-being, and recreational activities (Picchi et al., 2019). Moreover, the corporate character of the wind energy sector makes it difficult for some stakeholders, such as residents and environmental activist groups, to accept the development of wind power infrastructure around communities (Kirkegaard et al., 2022). In some countries, the proliferation of wind farms in rural areas has caused tensions amongst different interest groups, including tourism stakeholders, who fear that the presence of turbines and the perceived accompanying visual pollution they entail negatively affects tourism revenues and development (Mordue et al., 2020; Rudolph, 2014).

Such local concerns for the future of tourism development reveal tensions over the fate of rural landscapes. Evidently, the future of rural spaces and their landscapes is also framed through tourism practices (Frisvoll, 2012). In this study, we approach the place framing practices of tourists as an expression of power over the future of space. Following major socio-economic restructuring in the past decades, many rural spaces have become realms for the consumption of traditional and place-based tourist experiences (Lane & Kastenholz, 2015). Rural landscapes are central to these rural tourism experiences as they display the countryside’s idyllic charm (Daugstad, 2008; Frisvoll, 2013). Arguably, sustainability transitions are turning rural spaces into contested terrains of renewable energy futures and challenging visions of sustainable rural development.

For tourism geographers, it becomes critical to investigate the evolution of rural tourism as transitions towards socio-technical systems of renewable energy production transform rural landscapes. Important to this investigation are questions of place framing and imagining sustainable futures, but also of the constellations of power that produce space. We thus ask: how is rural tourism involved in the framing, and thus potentially the configuration, of rural landscapes in sustainability transitions? Our contention is that rural spaces in geographical research on sustainability transitions in tourism must be conceptualized to consider the multiple purposes and contested meanings they acquire as they become sites of renewable resource harnessing and energy production.

To propose such a conceptualization, we explore the subjective meaning that tourists attribute to the presence of wind turbines in rural Sweden. Considering that tourists to rural destinations generally expressed acceptance of the presence of wind turbines in the landscapes they visited, we propose that tourism practices frame the purpose and meaning of rural space in sustainability transitions. Our main argument is thus that sustainability transitions lead to the generation of new ideas around rural space and tourism. In sustainability transitions, rural spaces are more than sites for consuming idyllic rurality; they are evolving into sites for the negotiation of sustainable energy futures. We first conceptualize rural space and rural tourism before delving into literature on rural landscapes in sustainable energy transitions. After detailing the case study areas and methodology, we present our main results before closing with a discussion where we outline how tourist landscapes are assembled through modernizing visions of a sustainable future set to play out in rural regions.

Tourism and rural spaces

Rural spaces are important for leisure and recreation. In the Global North, rural areas are often sites for consuming attributes related to an imagined rural idyll (Frisvoll, 2013). Mostly, tourists imagine rural spaces through rural idylls that contrast with perceptions of the fast-paced city life. In the tourists’ minds, these rural spaces boast the traditional lifestyles and culture of a simpler life, largely unspoiled by modernity. This enduring image of the rural idyll is apparent in rural tourism where visitors to rural areas seek to consume products embedded in rural cultures and lifestyles, which they deem authentic and sustainable (Sims, 2009), and to have spiritual experiences in close contact with nature (Sharpley & Jepson, 2011). Much effort goes into providing tourists to rural areas with the experiences and symbols they expect to consume (Daugstad, 2008; Everett, 2012). To Frisvoll (2013), such efforts make rural tourism a productive agent of idyllic rurality.

Geographers understand rurality as a multifaceted concept reflecting the physical, imagined and lived dimension of rural spaces (Halfacree, 2006). While tourists may uncritically consume the symbols of the rural idyll, the reality of a rural destination is more complex. Frisvoll (2012) argues that many types of rurality compete to dominate a certain space, including those formalized through tourism activities. It is thus crucial to consider the actions of stakeholders involved in the production of rural space and how they articulate power through their actions (Prince, 2017; Woods, 2007). Space acquires its character through its interconnections with other spaces, where different sets of power relations lead to different sets of threats and opportunities (Massey, 2005). For instance, sustainable energy transitions are a global phenomenon tied to national policies and corporate technologies but take on a different material form and social meaning depending on local politics and culture (Coenen et al., 2012). As for rural tourism, Randelli et al. (2014) argue that its success is not only governed by micro-level processes occurring within rural areas, but also by developments at the meso and macro levels. Under such conditions, rural configurations are susceptible to change that can lead to transition when the rules and processes guiding the actions of rural stakeholders are altered (Randelli et al., 2014).

Rural space can be thought of as an assemblage of heterogenous components, including people, non-humans, technologies, affects, and discourses, that by coming together under certain conditions put rural space on distinct trajectories (Woods et al., 2021). Pierce et al. (2011) propose ‘place framing’ to understand the negotiations strategically deployed to influence the trajectory of spatial assemblage. As such, the rurality of rural spaces is always contested, undergoing extensive processes of negotiation before manifesting itself in material form. For Feola et al. (2023), place framing is important for envisioning sustainability transitions, adding that these frames are activated by social groups attempting to shape and contest transformations towards a sustainable future. The social meanings associated with a place are relevant for understanding societal transitions because the way that stakeholders understand place in the past and present shapes future collective action (Stokowski et al., 2021). Rural spaces face many challenges due to their spatial interconnectivity, which challenges collective conceptions of sustainability strategies because actors have different visions of sustainable futures. Stakeholders usually have different views of how rural tourism should be developed, with rural residents often wishing to preserve community heritage, while business stakeholders rely mostly on growth discourses to imagine the future (Stokowski et al., 2021; Wall-Reinius et al., 2019). Rurality thus emerges as different assemblages depending on the actors involved in coordinating rural configurations and imagining a sustainable future, and considering the power that they exercise over space.

Rural landscapes in sustainability transitions

The conceptualization of rurality and rural tourism relates to understanding the concept of landscape, which describes the assemblage of cultural and natural features across a land area. Landscapes are shaped by human and non-human activities that weave themselves into the physical environment as individuals foster relations of different character and strength with their surroundings (Ingold, 2011). Landscapes are important to rural tourism experiences since tourism is a highly visual experience that depends on the spatial aesthetics of various signs and symbols (Urry, 1991). Rural landscapes are composed of attributes like fields, small towns, coastlines, mountains, and forests, giving them a distinct visual appeal and recreational value. The value that individuals draw from recreational landscapes can be related to relaxation and well-being, but also to the socio-economic benefits of developing rural tourism activities (Margaryan et al., 2022).

Landscape is a powerful framework for analysing the effects of place change since this concept assigns socio-cultural and affective value to natural elements. For Bridge et al. (2013), the concept of landscape enables researchers to acknowledge that space is a terrain of multi-stakeholder negotiation and contestation over assemblages of nature, culture, and technology. One arena where landscapes have become such terrains is in sustainable energy transitions (Naumann & Rudolph, 2020). Rural space is central to the fulfilment of national goals of sustainable energy transition because it offers a stage to produce different sorts of renewable energies (Marsden, 2016). Renewable energy development relies on the horizontal deployment of infrastructure, meaning it requires the availability of large tracts of sparsely populated land. In the Global North, especially in rural areas that face challenges due to economic restructuring, the development of large-scale wind power infrastructure, mostly driven by corporate interests, has increasingly become a key strategy for economic diversification (Kitchen & Marsden, 2009).

The acceptance amongst rural populations of local wind power development projects usually relates to concerns about community resilience and modernization (Goudriaan et al., 2023). Significant to local acceptance of wind power development are matters of ownership, participation, and transparency in planning (Devine-Wright, 2011). There is evidence that the clout of extra-local developers can disempower rural residents during decision-making and planning (Kirkegaard et al., 2022). On this matter, Rygg (2012) argues that energy companies and their political proponents are skilled at framing the benefits for communities of renewable energy development to gain local support. Importantly, the large-scale development of renewable energy installations transforms the character and function of rural landscapes, and thus impacts the activities and well-being of those living near these installations (Picchi et al., 2019).

Rural landscapes become embroiled in place framing debates about renewable energy development (Mordue et el., 2020). Scholars recognize that the development of wind power infrastructure in rural areas is often a source of tensions amongst tourism stakeholders. Studies show that tourism stakeholders believe that the presence of wind turbines and the accompanying visual pollution they entail will negatively affect tourism revenues and development (Mordue et al., 2020; Ólafsdóttir & Sæþórsdóttir, 2019; Rudolph, 2014). Concurrently, studies from different fields reveal the perception that wind power infrastructure development decreases the scenic beauty of a natural landscape (Brittan, 2001; Graham et al., 2009; Woods, 2003). Critics accuse wind turbines of reducing the attractiveness of landscapes by emitting light and noise pollution, causing deforestation and soil erosion, and impacting wildlife (Dai et al., 2015).

Despite the common conviction amongst tourism stakeholders about the negative impact of wind power infrastructure on landscapes’ visual aesthetics, wind power infrastructure does not seem to translate into a negative impact on local tourism and its economy. Though tourism scholars have identified negative perceptions of wind power installation, research shows that often, wind turbines minimally affect the visitor experience, destination choice or intention to re-visit (Bidwell, 2017; Brownlee et al., 2015; de Sousa & Kastenholz, 2015; Fortin et al., 2017; Frantál & Kunc, 2011; Westerberg et al., 2015, 2013). Rudolph (2014) writes that though numerous surveys reveal no relationship between wind turbine installations and declines in visitation and tourism revenue, residents often worry about the turbines’ impacts on local tourism.

Considering this dissonance, Mordue et al. (2020) argue that local opposition to wind power infrastructure, especially from a tourism stakeholder perspective, mainly stems from place framing practices of stakeholder groups who seek to resist undesired change in landscapes they wish to preserve. While several reasons explain the residents’ resistance toward local development of wind power infrastructure (i.e. health concerns and loss of recreational opportunities), the notion that rural spaces are beacons of naturalness and peacefulness is also at play in imagining rural development in renewable energy transitions. Thus, wind power technology is often perceived as visual pollution in rural landscapes because of notions that nature is distinct from the cultural human realm of technology and progress, implying that technology does not belong in nature (Brittan, 2001).

Arguably, sustainable energy transitions cannot simply be about convincing local tourism stakeholders that wind power installations will not negatively impact tourism visitation and revenues. Matters of rural configuration and place framing indicate that geographers need a deeper understanding of how tourists assign subjective meaning to wind power development in rural landscapes and how such subjectivities potentially influence the production of rural space. To contribute to the conceptualization of rural space and rural tourism in sustainability transitions, we now turn to our study where we explore tourism’s entanglement in the reframing and reconfiguration of rural spaces during sustainable energy transitions.

Wind power in Swedish landscapes

Sweden has developed and enacted several land-use plans and climate policies to cease depending on carbon-emitting energy sources (Swedish Parliament, 2016). In 2022, approximately 17% of Sweden’s energy was generated through wind power technology. The country boasts 4,754 wind turbines unevenly distributed across its regions and producing 27,108 GWh of electricity (Swedish Energy Agency, 2022). Sweden heavily relies on hydro and nuclear power for its energy consumption, and, while these forms of energy production arguably impact the environment, they contribute to the national goal of producing carbon-free energy. Swedish wind power production has significantly increased since the early 2000s, a factor that Ek et al. (2013) attribute to the national adoption of strong policy goals that made wind power development financially viable and socially acceptable countrywide.

The number of wind turbines and their energy capacity varies considerably across Swedish municipalities (Ek et al., 2013). Due to their large tracts of uninhabited land, northern municipalities have most land-based turbines. Throughout the country, wind power is strategically expanded to provide green and cheap energy, compliant with emission reduction standards. Though the number of turbines has greatly increased over the past decades, opposition to their construction has also strengthened (Waldo, 2012). The Swedish Wind Energy Association (2022) laments that although the renewable energy sector enthusiastically backs new projects, there is little support from Swedish municipalities, which have considerable decision-making power concerning land-use (Ek et al., 2013).

While the wind power sector seeks to establish a stronghold in Swedish regions, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, rural areas, especially those of high natural value, gain popularity as visitor sites, especially for domestic tourists (Hedenborg et al., 2022). This trend of a growing number of visits to sparsely populated areas is unlikely to decrease. This makes Sweden a relevant context to explore meanings associated with wind power infrastructure in rural tourist landscapes.

Methodology

We collected the data for this research project from both domestic and international tourists at five popular Swedish rural destinations. Qualitative interviews were used to capture discourses of rurality and sustainability embedded in perceptions of wind turbines in rural landscapes. Qualitative research is useful to understand the complicated, contingent, nuanced, and atypical relationships that people form with place (Booth, 2015). Importantly, qualitative interviews provide insights into how individuals or groups, like tourists, think about their reality and how they construct it through language (Picken, 2018). Duly, with our data, we sought to explore the subjective meaning that tourists attribute to wind turbines in rural areas of Sweden.

The five destinations included in our study are: The UNESCO heritage site of the High Coast in Västernorrland county; the municipality of Ånge, located in Sweden’s geographical centre; a cultural heritage and cross-country skiing region in Dalarna County in the country’s interior; the coastal municipality of Mönsterås in Kalmar County in the southeast of Sweden; and the island of Öland also in the southeast of the country. We chose these specific geographical areas for this study using purposeful sampling. By consulting relevant stakeholders, doing preliminary observations, and studying different materials, we found areas specifically suitable to study to address our research aim. Mostly, we were looking for popular rural tourist destinations where there are wind turbine installations within the surroundings, which are clearly visible to visitors from some of their popular tourist points and routes.

We also looked for destinations to include in the study that could represent different types of rural landscapes. As such, the bucolic landscape of farms and small towns is represented by Öland and the Mönsterås municipality, the landscape of a nature-based destination is represented through Ånge municipality, while the landscape with strong cultural heritage and high natural value is represented through the county of Dalarna and the High Coast destination. These different types of rural landscapes helped us identify differences in tourist perspectives due to variations in the landscape’s features. Concurrently, we employed this strategy to investigate the similarities in tourist perceptions regardless of the landscape’s features. Here, we focus on the overarching similarities revealed in the data.

We conducted a total of 58 interviews with tourists at these five destinations over the summer months of 2022. Of these 58 interviews, 13 took place in the Ånge municipality, mostly at the viewing area Mittpunkten, 28 at the High Coast (Höga Kusten in Swedish), 7 at a visitor and nature interpretation centre in Dalarna (i.e. naturum in Swedish) and 10 in the Mönsterås municipality and at the seaside tourist area Kårehamn on Öland (see Figure 1). The participants were approached at visitor sites and attractions, like viewing platforms, trails, information points and nature and culture reserves. Individuals identified as residents were excluded from the study. Interviews were conducted in Swedish, German, or English. Most participants ended up being Swedes (n = 31), followed by German-speaking tourists (n = 20). Only a handful represented other nationalities (n = 7). We asked participants to describe the landscape of the areas they were visiting and what they found most attractive about it. We also asked them if they had considered the presence of wind turbines in the landscape they were visiting and about their thoughts on wind turbines in natural areas. The interviews lasted around 10 min and were recorded with the consent of the participants.

Figure 1. Locations where data was collected in Sweden. Map created by María Antonia Martínez Caldentey (2023) using ArcGIS.

The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The ontological framework guiding our thematic analysis is constructivism, meaning that the focus of our analysis is on people’s words and how these produce a particular reality for the study participants and researchers alike (Terry et al., 2017). In a first instance, a two-phase coding process was applied during which initial codes were generated after familiarization with the data. This was followed by collating similar codes into potential themes. In a second instance, members of the research group reviewed the potential themes to check if these themes worked well in relation to the data. This revision phase enabled us to refine the potential themes into the three themes presented below.

Tourist perceptions of wind turbines in Swedish landscapes

Asked to reflect about the presence of wind turbines in the rural landscapes they were visiting, most respondents accepted the need for green energy production. The few with negative feelings towards the turbines viewed them as visually disturbing and, thus, negatively affecting their visitor experience. Considering this finding, we propose three themes to present how rural landscapes are becoming assemblages of ecological-technological rurality for a global sustainable energy future as they become entangled in tourism practices. These themes reflect: an interest in the growth of the renewable energy sector; an acceptance of the fate of rural landscapes in sustainability transitions; and a process whereby certain groups of people are becoming used to the presence of wind turbines around them.

An interest in the growth of renewable energy

Sustainability transitions will only be possible if everyday practices of consumption are mobilized to support the technology, habits, know-how and conventions necessary for transitioning (Köhler et al., 2019). Importantly, individuals respond to an urgent need to change their consumption patterns in a context of energy dependency, which arguably influences opinion about renewable energy technology. Globally, wind power is widely accepted as a clean alternative to fossil energy production, but the local effect of its technology on people and place is often contested since it causes landscape transformation (Bridge et al., 2013; Rudolph, 2014). This dual reality, on top of the urgency of sustainability transitions, gives wind turbines complex meaning for those visiting landscapes where renewable energy is produced. In this regard, researchers have established that tourists often perceive the visual effects of renewable energy infrastructure in relation to value judgement, rather than aesthetics (Bidwell, 2023, 2017).

Many interviewees expressed positive feelings towards the wind turbines in the landscape they were observing by associating them with the necessity for more renewable energy sources. This association was reflected through statements like: ‘We need more energy, and we want more green energy, so we need wind turbines’ and ‘I’m always happy when I see wind turbines, because then I know, there’s green energy being made’. Mostly, tourists see in wind turbines a solution to the pressing need for increased renewable energy production for the sake of a sustainable future. The need for renewable energy was also linked to a desire for more energy to support the modern-day affluent lifestyles of Western societies. This quote from a tourist viewing the landscape from a mountain top on the High Coast is illustrative of this desire:

I think we need them. We’re talking about the ‘green transition’ and part of that simply are green alternatives to generate sustainable energy… so I think we will just have to accept them here and there, if we want to continue the lifestyle that we have established for ourselves in the Western world.

When reflecting on the presence of turbines in the landscape, many tourists thus acknowledged that more renewable energy should be produced to support sustainable consumption. Therefore, the presence of turbines in the landscape supported rationales of how energy should be produced for a sustainable future.

Generally, tourists did not limit their reflection about wind turbines in rural landscapes to discussing their perception of the landscape they were observing nor other landscapes they had directly experienced. Some tourists answered questions related to turbines in rural landscapes by discussing their opinion about larger societal challenges related to sustainable energy futures, like here:

But if we’re supposed to have all those electric cars, then we need the electricity from somewhere and as long as we don’t know where we can take all that electricity from, we need those wind turbines – that’s the way it is.

When discussing wind turbines in the landscape, tourists included concerns over the effects of climate change on people and the environment. The following quote reveals that tourists observe a landscape in its entirety during their tourist experience and do not just focus on the wind turbines. Thus, the visible effects of warming temperatures on the landscape, arguably wrought by climate change, are also addressed in reflecting over the presence of wind turbines in the rural landscape, as in the case of this visitor to Öland:

You see how hot and dry this summer was? Even up here in Sweden you see how dry everything is. We saw that there’s a high risk for grass fires as well, so you can really see the climate crisis everywhere now. We just have to do something. We need more and more electricity. It must come from somewhere.

Outlining further how tourists place turbines in a wider societal context during their tourist experience, this next quote reveals that tourists also think of rising electricity prices when they see wind turbines in rural landscapes:

We need more energy and electricity and definitely more green energy. The prices have already increased so much and I’m sure that they will rise even higher this winter, so…

It was nonetheless apparent that sometimes tourists were ambivalent concerning the need for wind turbines for sustainability transitions. This ambivalence was mediated somewhat due to several factors, including some participants’ concerns over access to affordable and safe energy. For instance, without specifying why, this tourist on Öland admitted to opposing wind power development, yet could see its purpose in the wake of rising electricity prices:

I never was a big fan of [wind turbines]. Now, just in the past few months the electricity prices have exploded and where should that go…we all need electricity, so yeah…maybe we just need to live with a few wind turbines here and there if that means that we can produce more electricity and that the prices go down, then so be it…ah, the energy question is not an easy one.

Regardless of their impact on land-use activities and ecosystem services, wind turbines are ultimately symbols, if not of a global sustainable future, at least of a personal sustainable future. As Stokowski et al. (2021) assert, landscape can be called upon to enact socio-cultural practices and discourses during transitions. Here, wind turbines in the landscape symbolize for many the possibility to change consumption patterns, save the environment from the effects of climate change, and continue to have energy available for consumption in times of resource scarcity. It becomes difficult to assess tourists’ perceptions of wind turbines in rural landscapes through individual parameters, such as their direct visual impact, because wind turbines are laden with meaning.

Accepting the fate of rural landscapes

Rural geographers have conceptualized the rural economy in sustainability transitions as increasingly consisting of ‘complex networks or webs of new viable businesses and economic activities that utilise the varied and differentiated forms of environmental resources in more sustainable ways’ (Kitchen & Marsden, 2009, p.275). The new networks and activities of the rural ‘eco-economy’ counter the net depletion of natural resources. Rather they provide cumulative net benefits that add value to the environment. Therefore, while the technologies of sustainability transitions have local impact on land-use and ecosystems, they are not as extractive and polluting as traditional industries are. Arguably, positive attitudes towards wind turbines amongst tourists to rural areas can be explained by perceptions that their presence in rural landscapes signifies the ecological modernization of rural economies (de Sousa & Kastenholz, 2015). Many rural spaces have grappled with depletion and pollution caused by activities associated with primary activities (e.g. mining) and manufacturing. Hence, tourists in rural landscapes consider anthropogenic features like abandoned mines and quarries, or electricity pylons and power lines to be more disturbing than wind turbines (Frantál & Kunc, 2011).

Our results indicate that when a rural area is developed to both uphold ecological balance and generate economic development (e.g. by supporting renewable energy infrastructure) tourists can appreciate its new productive landscape for the vision of sustainability it embraces. On this matter, the landscapes of southern Sweden are especially impacted by industrial activity, including nuclear energy production. A tourist on a nature trail in Mönsterås municipality, from where a wind park and a nuclear plant are both visible, had this to say:

We’re close to Oskarshamn [nuclear plant]. At the end of the day, we really must think about where we get our energy from, how we produce energy and then I find it acceptable to have even here, in such a landscape, a wind park.

Asked about the presence of turbines in the landscape they were visiting, tourists often acknowledged that turbines were an unavoidable contemporary feature of rural landscapes. Tourists made statements like: ‘We need them, so they must stand somewhere. This is just the way it is, if you like it or not.’ and ‘And we all want electricity, you know? It has to come from somewhere’. The word ‘somewhere’ used in two of the quotes specifically outlines an understanding that there is a spatial aspect to energy production that must be acknowledged.

For some tourists, wind turbines are best located offshore where their impact to ecosystems is not directly visible to humans. In fact, much of the research identifying tourist support for renewable energy infrastructure explores perceptions of offshore wind turbines (Bidwell, 2023, 2017; Westerberg et al., 2015, 2013). Tourists interviewed at Kårehamn on Öland were unfazed by the offshore wind turbines visible from their camping place. This quote from a camper outlines the perspective that wind turbines should be kept out of landscapes of natural and cultural value while being more acceptable offshore:

It’s good! They need to stand somewhere! And here at the coast and offshore is a perfect place for them! I think it’s important that they are not in nature protected areas, national parks or even reserves, but here, perfect!

The need to keep wind turbines out of valuable landscapes was also expressed by tourists at other locations, like this interviewee at the visitor centre in Dalarna who understood the impacts they can have on ecosystems:

I don’t know if [wind turbines] must be in nature with the animals and birds, it disturbs them. I don’t think they need to be in nature.

Nonetheless, tourists generally understood that sparsely populated remote areas were evident settings for expanding wind power development. Especially in the case study areas where nature dominates, like forested rural areas, tourists could easily make sense of turbines as obvious elements of the landscape in an age of dependence on energy and electricity production. Wind turbines could not be imagined as located close to homes and living spaces. Despite societal assumptions that technology pollutes natural landscapes (Brittan, 2001), tourists did not insist that wind turbines must be banned from nature. This quote from a tourist viewing the landscape in Ånge municipality, where wind turbines are visible far in the horizon, illustrates this point:

I mean they must stand somewhere, and I think it’s important that it is not too close to people’s houses, with the noise they make and everything, so a remote location like in this region is good.

Overall, there seems to be an acceptance that wind turbines belong in rural landscapes, where their presence as modernizing technologies in sustainability transitions can be reconciled with ecological preservation if planned for conscientiously.

Rural landscapes, especially sparsely populated and remotely located ones, are suitable terrains to accommodate the imagination of a sustainable energy future, rather than urbanized centres and areas of high natural value. Because they hold socio-cultural and affective value, landscapes evolve in their collective meaning, accommodating new discourses and realities during sustainability transitions (Naumann and Rudolph 2020). Thus, tourists generally adapt their perceptions of rurality to suit the new symbolic and material realities of sustainability transitions, which then guides their actions as tourists.

Getting used to the presence of wind turbines

Researchers have explored where wind turbines should be located to diminish their visual impact (Hevia-Koch & Ladenburg, 2019; Westerberg et al., 2013). Survey research is commonly used to study social attitudes towards wind power infrastructure, including testing hypothetically preferred distances of wind turbines from the shore, tourist sites and living areas. Our qualitative interviews show a more nuanced picture of how visitors express their attitudes towards the presence of wind turbines in the landscape; one not based on optimal distances and numbers of turbines, but more about getting used to their presence in the landscape.

Some tourists could see aesthetic value in having wind turbines located in rural landscape. Positive expressions towards wind turbines did not come with unequivocal enthusiasm for their beauty. Rather tourists displayed nuanced appreciation for the aesthetics of wind power technology. The next quote exposes the contingency of the aesthetic value of wind turbines, where sometimes they fit in with the landscape and at other times, they bother the onlooker. A tourist on Öland, where the rural landscape is impacted by centuries of farming and agricultural activity, said this about the presence of wind turbines on the island:

I don’t really care to be honest with you! It’s like, uhm, you know, I see them, but I don’t think about them really, I just don’t mind them. I find them kind of nice sometimes.

The next quote highlights that the imagination of place, what makes it seem productive, pleasing, and interesting, evolves to accommodate new realities where individuals get used to new features in the landscape. On Öland, wind turbines, as new technological features in the landscape to harness wind resources, could be rationalized as a continuation from the past. Traditional windmills are a popular feature of the landscape of this rural destination and, as this quote shows, already position the island as a space for energy production:

Tourists visit the historic windmills. They take pictures of the little wooden ones and then they complain about the modern ones that deliver electricity. I don’t understand that!

It is fair to say that individuals must reconcile the necessary presence of sustainability technology in areas once minimally developed with their values of nature protection. As shown above, many tourists generally accept the presence of wind turbines in rural landscapes. However, how the materiality of wind power development should look like to be acceptable is a more nuanced matter. Typically, tourists expressed something along the lines of ‘the number of turbines here is fine, but definitely not more’, implying acceptance of upper limit of wind turbines in rural landscapes.

Generally, tourists were undisturbed by the wind turbines in the landscapes they observed but could imagine how disturbing wind turbines could become in another constellation. The next quote from a tourist at a viewing platform at the High Coast bridge, where wind turbines are clearly visible, captures this perspective well:

I’m not bothered by wind turbines. That’s maybe because I haven’t heard them. I wouldn’t say that I wouldn’t be disturbed by their noise, but I’m not disturbed visually.

The tourists often explained why wind turbines were personally not disturbing to them or how they could be found disruptive in other contexts. For some, it was difficult to answer if wind turbines should be in the landscape they were observing or in other rural landscapes. It was likely difficult to answer because where should wind turbines be located is a complex question, dependent on facts like where else could they be placed, how many is too many and how common one wants them to be.

Other studies have found that the point of origin of tourists influences their perceptions of wind turbines (Brownlee et al., 2015; Westerberg et al., 2015). Importantly, some tourists are used to seeing turbines in their everyday surroundings to the point where for them, this technology has become a normal feature of the rural landscape. Tourists from Germany and the Netherlands seemed mostly unconcerned by the presence of wind turbines. The next quote is from a German tourist viewing the landscape at the geographical middle of Sweden in Ånge municipality:

I’m from northern Germany, so they’re just so normal to me. I see them every day, so I don’t really notice them anymore. They’re just part of the picture.

In fact, the lushness of Swedish nature in times of drought in their home countries generally made German, Swiss and Dutch tourists appreciate the landscapes in front of them and in Sweden in general, regardless of the presence of wind turbines.

While many individuals around the world are already becoming used to wind turbines in rural landscapes as part of their everyday existence, for some, this habituation is harder. However, it is not impossible. This quote from tourists on a mountain top in Ånge municipality show that the presence of wind turbines in the landscape is still surprising during nature experiences:

It’s not really something special for us, but I guess I was surprised by them being here in the forest. I wouldn’t have expected that. Sweden doesn’t have that much wind energy, so I was surprised. I’d expected them to be more at the coast.

Society’s cultural and affective values materialize in landscapes (Ingold, 2011). Sustainability transitions are visible in rural landscapes, where they become part of the experience of visiting and inhabiting space. In tourism research, practical matters (i.e. where to place wind turbines and how many) have been central in imaging the social acceptance of wind power installations at destinations. These practical matters nonetheless exist alongside subjective meanings related to the imagination of a sustainable energy future, where clean energy can be produced through certain spatial configurations to support modern-day consumption patterns.

Conclusion

Considering the need for sustainable energy transitions and its materialization in local landscapes, we explored how meanings associated with rurality and sustainability form in tourism practices. Our qualitative approach enabled us to capture a general understanding of the global need for renewable energy production amongst tourists making sense of rural landscapes in sustainability transitions. Ultimately, we propose that sustainability transitions lead to the generation of new ideas around rural space conventionally known for its idyllic charm and around the type of tourists that it attracts.

Results indicate that rural landscapes with wind turbines are experienced through situated reflection within a global context that calls for sustainable energy production and consumption. Most visitors accept that rural landscapes are not static. The visual impact of wind power infrastructure is not everything that matters to the tourist experiencing rural landscapes. Wind turbines are laden with symbolic meaning of rural eco-modernity and sustainable consumption, and their presence in rural landscapes can be understood as a contemporary necessity in sustainability transitions. Even if rural landscapes decline in aesthetic value according to norms of idyllic rurality with the development of wind power, they acquire new symbolic meaning that make them acceptable and even palatable for tourists in other ways. Rural spaces, such as the ones we investigated, thus evolve into sites for negotiating sustainable energy futures. They are assemblages of renewable energy technologies, tourist practices and desires, natural and physical features, and sustainability discourses that through their mobilization turn rural space and its landscapes into terrains of global sustainability. Transitions towards rural tourism development are complicated by this reality as it provides rural stakeholders with new opportunities to envision a sustainable future. Ultimately, the future of rural space depends on the type of configurations made possible by changes in rules, processes and attitudes at multiple levels working to reinforce each other (Randelli et al., 2014).

We propose speaking of tourist spaces of negotiated ecological-technological rurality in tourism geography to highlight the entanglement of tourist landscapes in affects and discourses related to rural modernization in sustainability transitions. Putting forward this concept is a first step in asking how tourism practices frame the purpose and meaning of rural space and their landscapes in sustainability transitions. That tourists can appreciate wind turbines in rural landscapes points at the possibility for new trajectories for landscape assemblages. Already, energy tourism is emerging as a tourist practice and field of research, serving to reconfigure rural space by framing the materiality of sustainable energy production as tourist attraction in the imagination of a sustainable future (see for instance de Sousa & Kastenholz, 2015; Frantál & Urbánková, 2017).

Considering the resistance that rural residents show towards wind power development projects in parts of the world, the danger exists that the support of tourists for eco-modern rural landscapes becomes embroiled in the place framing of stakeholders imagining a growth-oriented future. The notion of rural space constantly (re)forming through negotiations over contested meaning due to extra-local interactivity implies that tourism in sustainability transitions will take different forms through the micro-politics of the actions of stakeholders involved in the production of space. Fair renewable energy transitions relate to making it possible to imagine multiple spatial trajectories, not just those desired by powerful stakeholders (Jenkins et al., 2016). Avelino, (2017) argue that power is not just a means towards an end in sustainability transitions. It is also an end itself with unintended consequences. In the case of rural tourism, we could ask: what unintended consequences do communities and landscapes face when tourism practices and research lead towards trajectories of social acceptance of wind power installations?

Understanding the processes and mechanisms of sustainability transitions in tourism implies giving attention to the evolution of tourist spaces within broader socio-political and economic contexts (Niewiadomski & Brouder, 2022). Rural tourism, with its symbolic consumption of idyllic products and lifestyles, is evolving as a valuable economic activity while many rural spaces are developed and defined as spaces of resource harnessing and capital accumulation. Multiple discourses compete to dominate space and so it becomes crucial to ask what vision of a sustainable future do these discourses support. What new rules, processes and attitudes are orienting and coordinating the activities of rural tourism stakeholders in sustainability transitions, and how will they be negotiated? Conceptions of rurality and rural space as assemblages of imagination, place framing and power relations matter in geographical research on sustainability transitions in tourism, not only to grasp new spatial dynamics of rural destinations more accurately, but also to work towards just sustainability transitions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Energy Agency under Grant 51968-1.

Notes on contributors

Solène Prince

Solène Prince is Senior Lecturer in tourism studies in the School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University (Kalmar, Sweden) and an associate editor of Tourism Geographies.

Dimitri Ioannides

Dimitri Ioannides is Professor of Human Geography at Mid Sweden University and an editor of Tourism Geographies.

Anke Peters

Anke Peters has a master’s degree in tourism studies from Mid Sweden University, where she is currently a project assistant and lecturer.

Tatiana Chekalina

Tatiana Chekalina is Assistant Lecturer in tourism studies at Mid Sweden University. She is the project leader of Wind power establishments and experience values in nature areas, on which this study is based.