Transcript Ppt-NordicSymposium2010_vbn [240910]

Family Holiday
in a Danish Holiday Home
- motives and behaviour among second home renters
The 19th Nordic Symposium
in Tourism and Hospitality Research
Akureyri – Iceland / September 2010
Jacob R. Kirkegaard Larsen
PhD Scholar
Department of Culture and Global Studies
Aalborg University
Mail: [email protected]
The Danish Holiday Home
• Delimitation/definition
▫ Privately owned cottages or houses, often situated in clusters
within a rural area close to the coast and used with a tourism or
recreational purpose – in Danish also classified as “summer
house”
• Owners and renters
▫ 18% of the holiday homes are rented out through official rental
bureaus - 82% are used by its owners (or rented out privately)
▫ Renters of Danish holiday homes account for 35% of all overnight
stays and 56% of all foreigners
The Danish Holiday Home - Owners
• The typical owner:
▫ Middle age (45+) / elderly
▫ No children living at home
• Space-time Distance
▫ Danish owners only
▫ All year “Weekend homes” (Müller 2002)
The Danish Holiday Home - Renters
• Markets
▫ The German dominance
Markets (2009)
Holland
2.6%
Others
1.7%
Denmark
23.7%
Germany
66.1%
Sweden
1.5%
Norway
4.5%
Source: Statistics Denmark
The Danish Holiday Home - Renters
• Markets
▫ The German dominance
• Seasonality
▫ Lack of broad shoulders
Seasonality/overnight stays
(2009)
1,800,000
1,600,000
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
Denmark
Norway
Germany
Source: Statistics Denmark
The Danish Holiday Home - Renters
• Markets
▫ The German dominance
• Seasonality
▫ Lack of broad shoulders
• Renter segments
▫ Families with children
Segments
Family (with children 0-12 years)
30 %
Couples
25 %
Family (with children 12+)
13 %
With friends
8%
Grandparents with grandchildren
7%
Others
6%
Single
1%
Unanswered
10 %
Source: VisitDenmark 2005
Renters and owners:
Two different species within the same
environment?
Aim:
• Placing renter motives within the research tradition on second
home motives
• Provide a better understanding of second home motives seeing
that two apparently different groups of users are attracted by the
same “product”
Methods
• Owners’ motives
▫ Literature review – Danish, Nordic and International perspectives
▫ Motives for use – not for ownership (e.g. Economic investment)
• Renters’ motives
▫
▫
▫
▫
10 in-depth interviews – summer 2010
Blokhus & Hals (West/East coast)
Families with children (German, Danish, Norwegian)
Children between 0-15 years of age
• Limitation:
▫ Comparing primary and secondary data
Danish second home owner motives
Skifter-Andersen & Vacher (2009)
1.
Getting away from daily life and relax
2. Togetherness with family and friends
3. Being close to nature
Gram-Hanssen & Bech Danielsen (2009)
1.
Being together in a different way
2. Getting away from home
3. Nature makes the difference
4. Being at home in the second home
Away:
Togetherness
Relaxation
Nature
Home
Continuity
Place attachment
“Duality permeates everything in what it means to be a cottager: two
places with two lives, providing inversion but also merging into
symbiosis.”
(Jaakson 1986, p. 387)
Owners: Home…
• Continuity
▫ The second home includes a high degree of continuity, recognisability
seeing that it is repeatedly visited
(e.g. Chaplin 1999; Jaakson 1986; Quinn 2004)
• Place attachment
▫ The emotional attachment to the second home or the area is often very
strong and may exceed that of the first home - the second home become
part of the owner’s personal identity
 Ownership through many years or even generations
 Childhood or close family relations in the area
(e.g. Jaakson, 1986; Kaltenborn, 1997, 1998, 2002; Svenson 2004; Quinn 2004)
Renters: Home…
• Continuity and attachment
81 % or the renters are returning visitors (VisitDenmark, 2005)
In several cases previous acquaintance(s) with a rented second home –
either in the same destination or a similar one – had contributed to the
decision of this year’s holiday destination.
->Previous visit seems to contribute with a kind of emotional product or
place attachment among Holiday Home renters that makes them return...
Owners: … Away [1]
• Inversion and relaxation
▫ The second home is a ”free area” where all activities and chores are done
out of free will and where life moves in a slower pace.
(Chaplin 1999; Quinn 2004)
• Togetherness
▫ The second home provides a frame for inviting and being with family and
friends and enjoy a more intimate and close way of being together.
(Arronson 2004; Gram-Hanssen & Bech Danielsen 2009; Jaakson 1986;
Skifter Andersen & Vacher 2009)
Renters: … Away [1]
• Inversion, relaxation and togetherness
Holiday in a holiday home is getting away from work and having time to be together
as a family without the daily tasks that dominate everyday at home.
“To me it is important that I get away from work; It is 14 days where I don’t have to think about
work.” (German father)
“I have to say I didn’t have high expectations about anything except that I looked forward to
being with my family. Relaxing…” (Danish mother)
“You’re together so intensely. In everyday life you go to work for at least 8 hours and they [the
children] go to school and day care. Here you wake up together, have breakfast together and
are together in the house doing things and then you decide what to do that day. You’re kind of
together all day [and] that’s probably what I find the ‘cosiest’.” (Norwegian mother)
The holiday home is used as frame for “family reunions” – grandparents with
children and grand children (3) / parents inviting the grandparents (4)...
Owners: … Away [2]
• Nature
▫ A second home in the vicinity of the city as a recreational compensation
for the daily urban life
(Dijst et al. 2005; G. Halseth & Rosenberg 1995; Jaakson 1986; Müller 2002; Svenson 2004;
Skifter Andersen & Vacher 2009; Tress 2002; Wolfe 1951)
▫ Closeness to nature is related with outdoor activities




Water related activities such as swimming and sailing
Walking and biking
Fishing and berry picking
Experience the unspoiled, authentic and non-touristic nature
(Jaakson 1986; Jarlöv 1999; Petterson 1999; Stynes et al. 1997)
Renters: … Away [2]
• Nature
The holiday home landscape and nature - beach and
garden - should activate the children and provide
parent pleasure
Interviewer: Could you tell me about a typical visit to the beach?
German father: Okay, well (…) everything is packed in two cars;
all sorts of things – wind shields and toys for the children, chairs
for us [parents], something to drink (…) So we go there in the
cars and builds everything up, we sit down and the children are
gone. It‘s more or less like this…
Daughter (11 years): …we‘re in the water, in the dunes, maybe
building a sand castle… different sorts of things.
“It very nice with this terrace… we [the parents]can sit here and
the children can play…” (Norwegian father)
Owners: Home and Away
▫ ”At home” is still associated with the first home and it is the change
between the two homes that is important to the owners
(Gram-Hanssen & Bech Danielsen 2009)
▫ The “simple life” in the second home is only desirable for a period
then the complex and more challenging life at the first home is again
preferred.
(Perkins & Thorns 2006)
• Kaltenborn (1998): ”The alternate home”
• Chaplin (1999): ”Home yet holiday”
– inversion of everyday life in a homely atmosphere
Renters: Home and Away
• Danish and Norwegian families
The sense of home and away is related to more than just the shift between
everyday life and holiday:
“Most of the time we are away doing something, so when we are at home [in the
holiday home] we just need to relax.” (Danish mother)
“When you’ve been away all day, it’s actually nice just to get home – such as
today [the family had spent all day in a fun park].” (Norwegian grandmother)
“(...) this picture [children playing in the garden] is the homely and cosy
atmosphere [“hjemme-hygge”] at the holiday home while this [lions in a Zoo] is
going on a trip and being entertained” (Norwegian mother)
Svenson (2004): The cottage may be more central to the private cottager’s
(owner) experience while it may be more incidental to the commercial
cottager (renter).
Renters: Home and Away
• German families
▫ Inversion and a feeling of get-away seems to higher extent obtained in the mere
shift from their everyday home to a second home in Denmark.
▫ They prefer to spend time in the nearby area and nature of the second home and
consider fun parks and zoos as a “waste of time”:
“I know that there is a lot of great things here… a Swim Paradise or Legoland and other
places like that but that’s not important to me because it will just take up a whole day (…)
and it costs a lot of money. I’ll rather do something at the beach… but on the way home the
children would like go to Legoland, naturally” (German mother)
Father: “What would you like?”
Son (5 years): Zoo
Father “… we can always go to the zoo in Hamburg”
-> Renters are not a homogenous group regarding the perception of
inversion of everyday life and getting away from home.
Two different species – with similar roots
• Renters motivation do entail that the children are activated and
therefore differ from owners motives
• Basic motives appear to be similar – it’s the escape from home by
means of nature and family togetherness and yet a feeling of home
• Diversity also seem to exist across markets and within the family
->Second home motives of owners and renters seems not to be a
clean demographic cut
-> more complex set of motives has to be considered when developing
the future holiday home destination…
Thanks for your attention!