Motives and behaviour of second home owners in Iceland reflected by place attachment

Second home tourism has a long tradition in the Nordic countries, and seems to be gradually growing worldwide. The processes underpinning the decision to own a second home are often complex and connected with numerous influencing factors such as cultural setting, personal preferences and attitudes, economic situation, as well as practical questions regarding distance, anticipated utilization, and localization factors. The relationship between the environment in which the second home is situated and the prospective homeowners is likely to have a strong geographic character. This study aims to assess and analyse the habits and motivations of second home owners in Iceland and evaluate whether their behavioural patterns and patterns of geographical preferences can be explained by the concept of place attachment. The results reveal that place attachment can be seen as a significant localization factor influencing temporal and spatial development of second homes, which in turn helps explain the observed geographical patterns. While it has also been shown that homeowners with a prior connection to the locations in question do display different behavioural patterns than homeowners who obtained property in locations to which they had no prior connection, the results further reveal that heterogeneity is caused by diversity in lengths of ownership rather than being due to place attachment. In conclusion, the concept of place attachment is of only limited use in seeking to explain differences in behaviour among second home owners subsequent to the acquisition of property, suggesting that different forms of place attachment produce similar behavioural patterns.