Major business players have joined forces with a community campaign group to oppose plans for a 59 turbine development at Dorenell on the Glenfiddich Estate. They say the 410ft turbines, which will be visible for up to 35 miles, will irreparably damage the unspoilt beauty of the scenic area, which lies close to the Cairngorms National Park and is a magnet for tourists from all over the UK and the world.

Wm Grant and Sons, which owns Glenfiddich Distillery, Walkers Shortbread and Glenfarclas Distillery – in the guise of the Speyside Business Alliance – have put their weight behind the campaign to stop Dorenell. They have vowed to fight the development – labelling it a "dram disgrace" – in tandem with the Save Our Scenic (SOS) Moray group.

A joint public meeting was held at Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, on Monday night attended by around 70 people.

And the message to Moray Council was help those opposed to the wind farm by objecting and triggering a public inquiry. The final decision will ultimately lie with the Scottish Government but only an objection from the local authority will lead to an inquiry.

Rob McHugh, secretary of SOS Moray and a local holiday cottage owner, said the potential tourism loss could be even higher than £1 million. That figure was based on 8% of tourists who said they would not return to the area if it had a wind farm, in a weekend study commissioned by the wind farm developers, Dutch-owned Infinergy.

However, a 12-month survey of holidaymakers and tourists by SOS Moray put the potential loss of visitors at a much higher 22%.

Mr McHugh said even an 8% reduction in visitor numbers would have a huge impact on Dufftown and surrounding areas. "The loss of £1 million in this area is going to hurt. It will start to squeeze some businesses and some will go to the wall," he warned.

Mr McHugh said as many as 30% of overseas visitors said they would be unlikely to return to the area if the wind farm goes ahead. He warned his 10-bedroom business would not be viable if a fifth of visitors were lost to the area and he would be forced to "shut up shop".

Grant Gordon, chairman of Wm Grant and Sons, said the wind farm was potentially damaging to businesses in the area.

And he revealed that discussions have taken place with Moray's Scottish and UK political representatives Richard Lochhead and Angus Robertson. "They are listening seriously to what we are saying as businesses and the potential impact of a development such as this," he said.

The business group has commissioned three high-powered studies on the landscape, ornithology and tourism to support its case.

Professor Terry Stevens, tourism consultant, said the motivation for the majority of tourists in coming to the Highlands is the quality of the natural scenery. "It is relatively unspoilt and does not have industrial infrastructure," he said.

Prof Stevens, who has previously been commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to produce a tourism strategy for Moray, said the negative impact of wind farms from a landscape perspective, far outweighed any potential benefits. He said Speyside in particular traded on the pure image of its beautiful landscape in exporting its whisky, shortbread and other products to the world.

Tourism in the Strathbogie and Cabrach area is worth around £8 a year to the local economy, and to Moray as a whole it pulls in about £90 million, with two million day visitors and 500,000 overnight tourists. Prof Stevens said a study published in 2008 by Glasgow Caledonian University showed that visitors with negative feelings about wind farms will relocate to areas of Scotland where there are none.

The hills above Glenfiddich and Glenlivet have been and could still be an ideal breeding ground for Golden Eagles, bird expert Roy Dennis told the meeting. From 1977 to 1990, 12 young eagles were bred in that area, but in the last 10 years there has been no breeding because birds nesting places have been interfered with and the birds themselves poisoned.

Mr Dennis said a tracking study in 2007, in which a young eagle was tagged, showed that the bird visited the Glenfiddich and Glenlivet area on 42 different days between December 2007 and October last year. That was crucial evidence of the importance of the area, given its proximity to the national park, said Mr Dennis, but this was barely acknowledged in the environmental statement which accompanied the wind farm planning application.

"We could easily get three to four pairs of eagles breeding between Glenfiddich and the Lecht but you can forget it if we have a wind farm," he added.

Planning expert Ian Kelly was critical of Moray Council for failing to hold a public hearing to give local objectors to express their concerns. However, he said the council still had the power to trigger a formal public inquiry by objecting to the development.

The Dorenell proposal was well outside the preferred areas identified by the council for wind farm development and was contrary to its local planning policy. "There will be no proper scrutiny if the council does not object," he said.

Former Moray councillor Bob Wilson, Craigellachie, said if the wind farm gets the go-ahead that would rule out any future extension of the Cairngorm National Park to include the Glenfiddich and Glenlivet area.

Invitations were sent to all 26 Moray councillors and three – local members Fiona Murdoch and Michael McConachie, and Councillor John Russell, chair of the economic development and infrastructure committee – attended Monday night's meeting.

It is understood the Dorenell application is set to go before a committee meeting next month.

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