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.