Resorts’ second home tourism and regional development: a viewpoint of a Northern periphery

Abstract

During the last decades, tourism has been utilised as a vehicle to stimulate regional development particularly in peripheral areas. In the tourism phenomenon, resorts are centres for tourism functions, and second home tourism is part of those functions. The aim of this study is to scrutinise the nexus of second home tourism and regional development in the context of Northern periphery. Statistical analysis is addressed to four large resorts in Northern Finland. The results show that purpose-built second homes are typical for attractive, peripheral resorts. Therefore, they are ‘hot spots’ with respect to regional development representing dynamic regions. In terms of the absolute distance, a substantial proportion of private second home owners lives further than the weekend zone having an influence on the occupation rates and the economic impacts of the regions of destination. From the perspective of positive regional development, the ideal location for a resort would be in the hinterland of large population centres in a touristic, attractive landscape.