The Tourism Industry Association of P.E.I. has some concerns about the province's new wind energy plan.

'We have to start a process to understand it before we go ahead and do it.'— Don Cudmore, TIAPEI

Last week the provincial government announced an ambitious $1-billion wind development plan to generate another 500 megawatts of wind power by the year 2013. The government has mapped out where the new wind turbines might go and many are slated to be put up along the tourist area of the North Shore.

"We certainly do have some concerns about what it will do to our viewscapes, what the new viewscape map of the Island will look like and how it will impact tourism and visitors to Prince Edward Island," Don Cudmore, executive director of TIAPEI, told CBC News Friday.

"We're a long way from understanding that, but I do know that we have to start a process to understand it before we go ahead and do it."

Cudmore said government needs to do some detailed research to determine the actual impact the turbines will have on the tourism industry.