Second home tourism can be considered a good option for contributing to sustainable development in rural areas (i) due to its limited negative impact on environment and host community and (ii) due to its important contribution to local service suppliers. This is particularly true when the second home is not rented but owned. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a broad overview of second home ownership in peripheral parts of Sweden and to discuss the interrelationship between sustainable development and second home tourism in these areas. It is argued that a decreasing demand for second homes due to societal changes in the metropolitan areas challenges the role of second home tourism for a sustainable development. The analysis is mainly based on a unique geographical database covering more than 500,000 second homes in Sweden and providing information about their value, location and owners. Recent statistics on second home usage are used to complement the other data.
AldskogiusH. (1993) ‘Recreation, Cultural Life and Tourism’, National Atlas of Sweden, Stockholm: SNAG.
2.
AronssonL. (1993) ‘Mötet: En studie i Smögen av turisters, fritidsboendes och bofastas användning av tid och rum’, Gruppen for regionalvetenskaplig forskning, Forskningsrapport Samhällsvetenskap 1993, Karlstad, 1.
3.
AronssonL. (2000) ‘The Development of Sustainable Tourism’, Continuum, London.
4.
BjörkP. (2000) ‘Ecotourism from a conceptual perspective: An extended definition of a unique tourism form’, International Journal of Tourism Research, 2, 3, 189–202.
5.
BohlinM. (1982) ‘Fritidsboendet i den regionala ekonomin: Vart fritidshusägarnas pengar tar vägen’, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Geografiska Regionstudier 14, Uppsala.
6.
BullerH.HoggartK. (1994) ‘International Counter Urbanization: British Migrants in Rural France’, Avebury, Aldershot.
ButlerR.HallC.M. (1998) ‘Image and reimaging of rural areas’, in ButlerR.HallC.M.JenkinsJ. (eds) ‘Tourism and Recreation in Rural Areas’, Wiley, Chichester, 115–122.
CohenE. (1974) ‘Who is a tourist? A conceptual clarification’, Sociological Review, 22, 3, 527–555.
11.
GrahnP. (1991) ‘Using tourism to protect existing culture: A project in Swedish Lapland’, Leisure Studies, 10, 1, 33–47.
12.
JenkinsJ.HallC.M.TroughtonM. (1998) ‘The restructuring of rural economies’, in ButlerR.HallC.M.JenkinsJ. (eds) ‘Tourism and Recreation in Rural Areas’, Wiley, Chichester, 43–67.
13.
HallC.M. (1998) ‘Historical antecedents of sustainable development and ecotourism: New labels on old bottles?’, in HallC.M.LewA.A. (eds) ‘Sustainable Tourism: A Geographical Perspective’, Longman, Harlow, 13–24.
14.
HallC.M.LewA.A. (1998a) ‘The geography of sustainable tourism development: An introduction’, in HallC.M.LewA.A. (eds) ‘Sustainable Tourism: A Geographical Perspective’, Longman, Harlow, 1–12.
15.
HallC.M.LewA.A. (1998b) ‘Sustainable Tourism: A Geographical Perspective’, Longman, Harlow.
16.
KaltenbornB.P. (1997) ‘Nature of place attachment: A study among recreation home owners in Southern Norway’, Leisure Sciences, 19, 2, 175–189.
17.
KaltenbornB.P. (1998) ‘The alternate home: Motives of recreation home use’, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, 52, 2, 121–134.
18.
KingR.WarnesT.WilliamsA. (2000) ‘Sunset Lives: British Retirement Migration to the Mediterranean’, Berg, Oxford.
LundgrenJ.O.J. (1974) ‘On the access to recreational lands in dynamic metropolitan hinterlands’, Tourist Review, 29, 3, 124–131.
21.
MathiesonA.WallG. (1982) ‘Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts’, Longman, Harlow.
22.
MöllerA.MöllerJ. (1994) ‘Försvann Gullabo? En småländsk socken 40 år efteråt’, Svensk Geografisk Årsbok, 70, 2, 106–114.
23.
MüllerD.K. (1999) ‘German Second Homeowners in the Swedish Countryside: On the Internationalisation of the Leisure Space’, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå.
24.
NelsonJ.G.ButlerR.WallG. (1993) ‘Tourism and Sustainable Development: Monitoring, Planning, Managing’, Department of Geography, Waterloo.
25.
NordinU. (1993) ‘Second homes’, in AldskogiusH. (ed.) ‘Recreation, Cultural Life And Tourism’, National Atlas of Sweden, Stockholm, SNA, 72–97.
26.
SegrellB. (1995) ‘Den attraktiva kusten’, Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping Studies in Art and Science, Linköping, 125.
WallG. (1997) ‘Rethinking impacts of tourism’, in CooperC.WanhillS. (eds) ‘Tourism Development: Environmental and Community Issues’, Wiley, Chichester, 1–10.
31.
WightP. (1998) ‘Tools for sustainability analysis in planning and managing tourism and recreation in the destination’, in HallC.M.LewA.A. (eds) ‘Sustainable Tourism: A Geographical Perspective’, Longman, Harlow, 75–91.
32.
WilliamsA.M.HallC.M. (2000) ‘Tourism and migration: New relationships between production and consumption’, Tourism Geographies, 2, 1, 5–27.
33.
WilliamsA.M.KingR.WarnesT.PattersonG. (2000) ‘Tourism and international retirement migration: New forms of an old relationship in southern Europe’, Tourism Geographies, 2, 1, 28–49.
