From cabins to caravans: expanding the horizons of second-home tourism in Sweden

Second-home tourism is an important driver and result of rural and urban change. However, the focus for second-home research has typical contextual traits. In a Nordic context, the archetypal image of a second home – in research as well as in the mind’s eye of the public – is that of a detached (single-family) rural housing, such as a cottage or cabin. Much less attention has been paid to other forms of second-home dwellings, like flats, or mobile second homes such as caravans, trailers, and recreational vehicles. In this paper, we expand the horizon of second-home research beyond the detached rural house. Using georeferenced microdata on detached houses and flats, along with survey data on campsites, we explore the prevalence and spatial distribution of different dwelling types in the total second-home stock of a rural region in northern Sweden. The paper contributes to second-home literature by incorporating a wider, inclusive, perspective of the phenomenon, showing that this type of tourism is more widespread than previously thought. Furthermore, the study highlights the relation between these dwelling types and different parts of the tourism supply, with flats and mobile second homes being highly concentrated to urban centres, ski resorts, and nature-based tourism amenities.