The Effects of Distance and Belonging on Second-Home Markets

This article discusses the effect of distance between markets and second-home areas in a mountain region and how people's preferences are modified by the degree of belonging or attachment to the area of their second home, expressed as former or present ties. A second-home market is here defined as a cluster of permanent residences of second-home owners and is identified by the application of the kernel-density method, which to our knowledge is new to tourism research. We used data from two postal surveys of owners of second homes in two mountain locations in southern Norway. We have concluded that average travel distance would not be a good measure of people's preferences, partly because the decay of local markets reduces the observed distances between permanent addresses and second homes, and partly because people with any belonging to the second-home areas are less sensitive to distance or travel time. Consequently, the distances between markets and second-home areas are expected to deviate from those predicted from distance-decay models, which predict a rapid decay with distances beyond the weekend zone. Instead, where a high number of owners with a sense of belonging were found, distances were not heavily restricted to the weekend zone. This pattern, with large distances between an urban market and a second-home area, seems to persist across generations and is comprised mostly of owners of traditional, low-standard second homes. For urban owners with no belonging, however, the absolute distance to markets certainly has become increasingly important, despite higher mobility and generally shorter travel times, and this has restricted ownership to the weekend zone. These owners typically prefer modern, high-standard second homes.