Dieter K. Müller

Second Homes in the Nordic Countries: Between Common Heritage and Exclusive Commodity

Second homes are part of Nordic heritage. Nowhere in the world is second home ownership as common as in the Nordic countries. However, second homes are not only important as domiciles for vacation and recreation. They also form important parts of the Nordic folklore and are thus reproduced in, e.g. popular coffee table books and tourism promotion. However, second home tourism has also been contested; particularly during the 1980s international charter tourism which has been a competitive alternative to the mainly domestic second home tourism. During the 1990s, second home tourism experienced rejuvenation. Today Nordic second homes are seized as opportunities for regional development (Jansson & Müller, 2003; Flognfeldt, 2004), but also accused for causing rural displacement (Marjavaara, 2007). Hence second homes have become an issue for many authorities all over the Nordic realm. It has been in debate whether second homes are really part of tourism. Cohen (1974) argued that second-home owners are marginal tourists only since there is no novelty aspect involved in traveling to the personally owned cottage. Ontologically, second-home mobility as tourism was also questioned by Johnston (2006), who argues that the very different set of practices employed by second-home owners in fact distinguishes them from tourists. Destinations based mainly on second homes have thus left their tourism life cycle. In contrast Jaakson (1986) argued that the lack of novelty is hardly special for second home tourists, but comprises many other forms of tourism too. He also

Access to Sami tourism in northern Sweden

In recent years, there has been increased development of indigenous tourism as part of the tourism industry. Even the Sami of Northern Sweden are now engaging in tourism, not least because the restructuring of reindeer herding has forced them into taking up other occupations. The purpose of this article is to analyse the potential of the emerging Sami tourism in Sweden, with special emphasis on access to Sami tourism products. The analysis uses the four H approach outlined by V. L. Smith - habitat, heritage, history and handicraft. The article starts with a short description of the Sami and their culture, followed by a discussion of the relationship between the Sami and tourism in northern Sweden. Smiths concept is then introduced, modified and applied in relation to the new Sami tourism development in the area. The analysis is based on a survey of all 68 Sami tourist attractions and projects in Swedish Lapland in 1999.

German Second Home Development in Sweden

Second home tourism is probably the most researched interface between tourism and migration (Williams and Hall, 2000). The reasons for that are quite obvious. First, research on tourism suffers from a lack of comprehensive and reliable data. In contrast second homes are often covered in national property cadastres and thus well documented and relatively easy to research. Nevertheless, most studies focus on smaller areas or do not provide a comprehensive picture of the entire spectrum of second home ownership (Bohlin, 1982; Halseth, 1993; Halseth and Rosenberg 1995; Wolfe 1951). Alternatively, the level of analysis does not penetrate beyond the administrative levels (Ragatz, 1970; Clout, 1972; Clout, 1977; Lohr, 1989; Buller and Hoggart, 1993). Second, research on second homes addresses land use issues and thus a core topic of geographical research. Most second home buyers as well as other migrants are led by lifestyle considerations and bear a certain positive image of the countryside in their minds, sometimes based more on fictional sources than real experience (Tuan, 1974; Short, 1991; Bunce, 1994; Butler and Hall, 1998; Riley et al. 1998). Hence, the encounter with the rural population and the rural traditions does not occur without tension (see Chapter Ten). Finally, the purchase of a second home in the countryside also entails a long-term commitment to the host community including an increasing involvement into local issues. Several studies show that this process, sometimes labeled rural gentrification (Phillips, 1993), results in newcomers and the local population sharing the rural space but live in separate domains (Halseth 1993; Phillips, 1993; Muller, 1999). Particularly because the second home owners consume the countryside as a recreational resource only, research on second home ownership is tightly connected to research on contested.

The attractiveness of second home areas in Sweden : A quantitative analysis

The attractiveness of second home areas is usually measured in absolute figures. Such an approach ignores that second home areas have different potentials to attract second home buyers, because of their relative location in relation to major population centres. Hence, absolute figures represent the total distribution of the population rather than the amenity of a location. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relative attractiveness, here expressed as relative acceptance (RA), of second home areas in Sweden, which accounts for the spatial context of the areas. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset containing geo-references for all second homes and second home owners in Sweden in 2001.

The difficult business of making pleasure peripheries prosperous : perspectives on space, place and environment

The difficult business of making pleasure peripheries prosperous : perspectives on space, place and environment

Second Home Ownership and Sustainable Development in Northern Sweden

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.

Sámi heritage at the winter festival in Jokkmokk, Sweden.

Indigenous tourism is an expansive sector in the growing tourism industry. However, the tourist experience of the indigenous heritage is often delimited to staged culture in museums, exhibitions and festivals. In this paper, focus is put on the annual Sámi winter festival in Jokkmokk, Sweden. It is discussed to what extent this festival truly is an indigenous event. This is accomplished by scrutinizing the Sámi representation at the festival regarding its content and its spatial location. It is argued that the available indigenous heritage is highly staged, although backstage experiences are available for the Sámi and for the curious tourists.

The Development of Second Homes' Assessed Property Values in Sweden 1991–2001

The second home phenomenon is deeply rooted within the Swedish society. To own a second home or have frequent access to a second home is important and desirable for the Swedish population. The comparably high level of second home ownership in the country manifests this. Second homes are scattered all over the country, with main concentrations in or near densely populated areas. Some, not unimportant, concentrations can be registered in places with relatively low population density and at a considerable long distance from major population centres. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in second homes among the Swedish population, but also increasingly from incoming visitors. This has resulted in a growing competition for properties, especially those located in attractive areas with high amenity values. The purpose of this paper is to identify attractive second home landscapes and their characteristics in Sweden. Utilizing data from the comprehensive geo‐referenced database ASTRID (generated by Statistics Sweden) covering all second homes in Sweden 1991–2001, attractive second home landscapes are examined and defined.

Unplanned Development of Literary Tourism in Two Municipalities in Rural Sweden

Recently, artistic places and places known from movies have induced an increase in tourism. However, rapid development also challenges the rural planning authorities who are not prepared to manage the high number of tourists. In this paper focus is put on two rural municipalities in southern Sweden. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize and compare tourism development and tourism planning in these municipalities. This was accomplished by mapping tourism facilities and by in‐depth interviews with the local tourism managers. It is argued that tourism planning should be an integrated part of the rural planning process for achieving sustainable development. However, the case studies show that tourism planning does not reach this requirement. Although tourism is important to the local labor market, the municipal authorities are barely engaged in tourism at all. Instead tourism planning was outsourced to public‐private companies representing mainly the interests of the involved tourism entrepreneurs.

Implementing tourism events: the discourses of Umeå's bid for European Capital of Culture 2014.

Regional competitiveness has become a truism for many places today. In line with this “competitive discourse”, planners in Umeå, Northern Sweden, are seeking to create a “sticky” place where capital and people are attracted by enhancing the cultural sector through the hosting of events. By implementing the bid for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2014 through a positive growth-oriented discourse, it is hoped that a multitude of stakeholders will come together in a network of “co-creation”, and enhance an image of the city as a creative and gushing place with endless development possibilities. This paper studies how a development proposal is implemented among the stakeholders by seeking to create positive expectations. With a point of departure in stakeholder theory and interdiscursive analysis, this study explores the role of discourse in stakeholder dynamics and engagement. The results of this study show that implementation is not merely a marketing process, but different opinions will emerge that may contest the “official” discourse, and that the outcomes of the implementation strategy may be hard to control unless the “official” discourse is consciously elaborated to adapt to these counter-discourses.