Centre for Tourism Studies

Finland has often been considered as the promised land of second homes and it continues to be so. Over
time, second homes have not only increased in quantity, but also changed in terms of quality and the
composition of their owners. Today, there are nearly half a million second homes that are ever more
often equipped with modern conveniences. Second homes, however, are no longer the sole destinations
for leisure consumption outside of one’s permanent home. Instead, the concept of multiple dwelling
better describes the reality of Finnish leisure and second home tourism.
The polarization between urban and rural has often been in the focus of political debates in Finland.
Instead of two separate poles, it has been suggested that the two should be seen as a continuum and that
we should increasingly find ways, for example, to bring green rural environments to urban areas and
urban services and possibilities to rural communities. Multiple dwelling is therefore in the core of the
urban rural continuum. It challenges the contemporary practices and environments of housing and living
and also raises important questions on the governance of second homes in municipalities.
What do we know of the practices and motives of multiple dwelling of different groups of people?
How does multiple dwelling impact on local communities and housing structures? What are the environmental
impacts of second homes and how do the impacts compare with other types of tourism? How
are multiple dwellers and second homes taken into account in rural municipalities? This report summarises
the results of national surveys targeted on Finnish citizens and municipalities and provides valuable
insights that will help to answer these questions.
According to the results, besides their permanent residence a large proportion of Finns spend time
at not only one, but several second homes. While the official, register based population, is increasingly
concentrated on urban areas, multiple dwelling is dispersed. In some rural municipalities the share of
second home owners and users exceeds that of permanent residents when people head from dense urban
areas for quality leisure by lakes and forests. Although trips to second homes decrease their users’ other
leisure trips, the climate impacts of second homes are significant. Modern second homes ever more
often resemble permanent residences and a private car is the main means of transportation between the
different dwellings. For rural municipalities, however, multiple dwelling can have a significant impact
on the local economy and considerable business potential is connected to second home development.
Changes in the forms and structures of housing and living create a need to revise the current governance
mechanisms, especially in terms of spatial planning and construction. A ‘one stop shop’ principle
is needed to reduce bureaucracy and ease the lives of multiple dwellers while making governance
more effective. This report as a whole aims at increasing the awareness of changes taking place in the
forms and practices of second home tourism. The report challenges the current population statistics and
registers based on the assumption of a single and static place of residence thereby emphasizing the need
for a broader conceptualization of housing and living in the Finnish society.
The report marks the end of a five year research project carried out by an international team of researchers
from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and
Finnish Forest Research Institute (currently Natural Resources Institute LUKE). Homes beyond Homes
research consortium was funded by the Academy of Finland (SA 255424) and the research component
was led by Professor C. Michael Hall from UEF and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. This
report summarises the main results of the research data collected in the project. The focus is on the two
large national surveys, but also the key results of the more qualitative data such as interviews, focus
groups and literature analyses are presented. Information boxes of some of the published research articles
illustrate the results of the project and the diversity of perspectives to multiple dwelling. The report
is published both in Finnish and English.

Reports of the Finnish Environment Institute 22en/2015 3 Preface Finland has often been considered as the promised land of second homes and it continues to be so. Over time, second homes have not only increased in quantity, but also changed in terms of quality and the composition of their owners. Today, there are nearly half a million second homes that are ever more often equipped with modern conveniences. Second homes, however, are no longer the sole destinations for leisure consumption outside of one's permanent home. Instead, the concept of multiple dwelling better describes the reality of Finnish leisure and second home tourism.

[unofficial English abstract]
In an interconnected world where change seems to accelerate, there is an increasing need for geographical knowledge. The problem is that decision-makers and the general public do not always know the strengths of geography. During the 2016 Finnish Geography Days, five young geographers discussed the state and future of geography. As a summary of the panel discussion, this paper is divided into four different themes; the image of geography and its societal impact, the Anglo-American and Western effect in geography, collaboration networks and professional skills, and the geography in schools and student admission. The panelists/authors conclude that geography is one of the most socially relevant topics in schools and its importance is perceived only to grow. Geographers just need to bring their ideas, results, and arguments available to the general public through world-class research, media, social media and education to have an impact.

This study examines German-speaking second home owners on Gran Canaria, Spain as an example of one of the growing groups of non-conventional tourists. International second home ownership has been increasing rapidly over the last decades with Spain and particularly the Canary Islands being a hot spot for residential tourism. Despite the maturity of the destination, there are few studies on second home tourists on the Canary Islands. Moreover, while second home tourism, including its international forms, has been present as a distinct type of tourism, academic attention has not sufficiently compared and counterposed mass and residential tourism. The aim of this paper is to investigate distinctions between second home and mass tourists to define the features of non-conventional travellers in light of the contemporary growth of alternative ways to engage in recreation. This paper argues that second home tourism reflects the emerging tourism trends of "home stay tourism" and "living like a local" that will reshape the nature of mass tourism as well as receiving destinations. In order to understand the features of rapidly growing alternative or non-mass tourists, this paper examines the experiences of German-speaking second home owners on Gran Canaria. The results reveal a number of distinctive features that collectively help to understand contemporary non-conventional tourists.

The main emphasis in this article is on seeing and feeling the cityscape of the Finnish city of Savonlinna. Four photographs are used to study the cityscape since in geographical research
images produced through visual representations, such as photographs, have always been significant in data acquisition. Representation here refers to the description of reality. This research seeks answers to the following questions: 1) How do respondents perceive the good and bad sides of the Savonlinna cityscape and 2) How can the indings of the picture interview be used to further develop the destination by using photographs taken by a researcher. Findings based on saturated data show that respondents in the centre of Savonlinna an experiential and social space, a visual experience, a landscape experience and a landscape of intrinsic value, which was examined from the perspective of both insiders and outsiders.