SECOND HOME TOURISM The Root to Displacement in Sweden?

• Main Author: Roger Marjavaara
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Kieksiäisvaara; Luleå
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.462.4442; http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:141659/FULLTEXT01.pdf

I still have pleasant childhood memories from the time when my mom and dad packed our Saab station wagon in Luleå for the 230 kilometre annual summer trip to our second home in Kieksiäisvaara, my parent’s former home village. This second home was important for them, a clear link back in history and a place of refuge away from the daily routines of urban life. Here, I found friends that later would become my class mates after my parents decided that the family would move to the second home on a permanent basis. Later in life, I have realised that my childhood vacations and experiences are the products of larger societal processes, such as rural restructuring, urbanization, mobility, second home tourism, place attachment and return migration, the very same processes I later would come across through the work on this thesis. Hence, second home tourism and related issues are something I have experienced from an early age, more or less unconsciously. During the past five years, second home tourism has accompanied me in my daily thoughts and discussions. The work has given me deep insights into issues previously unknown to me. It has made me realise that this is an important phenomenon for many