Second homes vs. residential tourism: A research gap

Abstract

Residential tourism and second homes are two closely related phenomena that constitute a growing research field, but the different names given to the concepts by researchers have led to a fragmented and disconnected literature. These two categories are essentially the same - or share many elements – but the research seems to be disjointed, which, in our opinion, has created a gap in the existing literature on this subject. Specifically, the research on "residential tourism" has expanded to integrate not only second home ownership issues, but the rental of holiday homes to tourists. This commercial use of second homes has been only occasionally referred to by second home authors. Mainstream literature, mainly focused on North American-Canadian and Scandinavian destinations, uses the term "second homes". Conversely, researchers in Mediterranean countries – e.g. Spain or France – prefer the term "residential tourism". Both phenomena are also related with a third concept, to take into account in this context, the visiting friends and relatives tourism (VFR). This note advocates an unified approach to studying this kind of tourism that will extend knowledge in the field and optimise future research efforts.