A DECADE OF SECOND HOME TOURISM RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA: RESEARCH PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD?

1

A DECADE OF SECOND HOME TOURISM RESEARCH IN SOUTH

AFRICA: RESEARCH PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD?

G. Visser

Department of Geography

University of the Free State

Bloemfontein

9300 South Africa

G. Hoogendoorn

School of Geography Archaeology and Environmental Studies

University of the Witwatersrand

Johannesburg

Private Bag x3

Wits

2050

2

A DECADE OF SECOND HOME TOURISM RESEARCH IN SOUTH

AFRICA: RESEARCH PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD?

Abstract

It has been ten years since second home tourism emerged as a topic of investigation in

South Africa. A number of book chapters, articles, masters and Ph.D. theses have

appeared, focusing on the economic, social and environmental impacts of second

home tourism. From these core investigations, new themes have emerged such as

methodological challenges, the consequences of second home tourism for town and

regional planning and the place of second homes in the South African post-

productivist countryside. Issues relating to personal mobility and (inter)national

migration of different population groups across varied income levels have also been

scrutinised. Despite a decade of dedicated inquiry, much research is still required to

understand this phenomenon fully within the South African context. Furthermore,

investigators need to acknowledge the role of second home tourism as a potential

driver for many tourist regions.

Keywords: second home tourism; South Africa; economic; social; environment,

migration, methodology.

3

Introduction

Second home tourism as a topic of investigation has a long history dating back to the

pioneering work of Ljungdahl (1938) and Wolfe (1951, 1952), as well as the seminal

work of Terry Coppock (1977) in his influential, edited collection Second Homes:

Curse or Blessing? However, for nearly three decades thereafter, second home

tourism research went into a hiatus during which few significant investigations

emerged with the exception of theinfluential contributions of Barke (1991), Go

(1988), Hoggart and Buller (1994), and Jordan (1980). The exact reason for this pause

in research interest is unclear, although the rise in Marxist social sciences, the so-

called relevancy debates of the time, and impacts of the oil crisis probably played a

collective role in this research neglect (Müller & Hoogendoorn, 2013). The massive

expansion of the world economy since the 1980s through the 1990s, the rise of ever

greater affluence in the developed world, and increasing wealth in the developing

world too, rapid globalisation, deregulation, political integration and technological

innovation all provided the means by which second home tourism expansion became

significant enough in scale that it could no longer be ignored (Müller &

Hoogendoorn, 2013). New interest in second home tourism was initiated by Michael

Hall and Dieter Müller through their collection, Tourism, Mobility and Second

Homes: Between Elite Landscape and Common Ground (2004).1 Subsequently, Hall

and Müller’s collection has become the most influential work in second home

research.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the progress that has been made in

understanding second homes in South Africa since Hall’s invitation. In addition, it

highlights the broader relevance of our completed research to the currently neglected

4

discourse around second home tourism in the global south. Except for very important

research by Hui and Yu (2009) on second homes from a cross-border perspective

between the Chinese mainland and Hong-Kong, Van Noorloos (2012) in Costa Rica,

some exploratory investigations by Matteucci, Lund-Durlacher and Beyer (2008) on

the socio-economic and environmental impacts of second homes on the coast of

Nicaragua, and Matteucci (2011) on the economic impacts of second homes also in

Nicaragua, little dialogue exists between the developed north and developing south. It

has to be noted, however, that second home tourism in the developing world is an

increasingly significant phenomenon. For example, many African countries have

migrant labour systems that have created first and second home dichotomies over and

above the many towns along the coasts of Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya that

host second homes of international cohorts and the wealthy national elite. The same

can be said of a number of areas in Latin America and Asia. However, little research

has emerged from these countries, therefore existing research speaks to north/south

dichotomies instead of south-to-south debates. As a result, the themes discussed in

this paper are a lone venture in the global south, with some relevance to the global

north. However, a call should be made to researchers to consider second home

tourism in a variety of locations in the global south. The reason why second homes

have not been researched in the global south might relate to issues that have more

relevance such as food security, housing and the poor, however, tourism makes a

substantial contribution to the economies of many countries in the global south,

therefore the validity of researching second home tourism as part of the broader

tourism economy of the global south is paramount.

The paper unfolds as follows: first, a background on the initial exploratory

5

investigations undertaken is provided. Thereafter, the main investigative niches are

discussed, such as second homes in a post-productivist countryside, the economic

impacts of second home tourism, as well as issues surrounding method, methodology

and positionality. Matters concerning mobility and migration of different income

groups in relation to their second homes, and brief accounts of the preliminary

findings around the environmental and social impacts of second home research are

then explored. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions of new avenues of

second home tourism investigation and a call to deepen and more thoroughly link the

existing research with broader debates in tourism and geography.

Kicking off in 2003: the first exploratory investigations

Following Hall's invitation, the starting point of a South African second homes

discourse was a paper entitled ‘Visible, yet unknown: reflections on second homes

development in South Africa’ (Visser, 2003) and a companion piece in Tourism,

mobility and second homes: between elite landscape and common ground (Visser,

2004a). It noted the lack of investigation into second home tourism in South Africa

arguing that, despite the prevalence of this phenomenon, to the country's day-to-day

realities at that time, second homes seemingly did not merit investigation into what

was then assumed to be ‘lily white’, wealthy geographies (see Visser, 2013). Using a

variety of historical sources and the popular press, these investigations set out to

explore the history of a range of towns and villages that were well known for being

holiday/tourism hotspots with large numbers of second homes (see Figure 1 for towns

studied over the last decade). However, it was also highlighted that there was a lack of

both historical and current data that specifically focused on second homes. As a

consequence, potential starting points for a broader South African discourse were set

6

out, specifically focusing on the potential economic, social and environmental

impacts of second home development.

Figure 1: ‘Second home Towns’ studied over the past decade.

A broader research project was then developed to gain some sort of understanding of

the prevalence and impact of second homes in a range of areas largely populated as

‘second home destinations’. It was also intended to develop a template to access

usable databases to construct the main contours of this debate in the South African

context. From this developed two papers: 'Second homes and small-town

(re)development: the case of Clarens' (Hoogendoorn & Visser, 2004) and 'Second

homes and local development: issues arising from Cape Town’s De Waterkant'

7

(Visser, 2004b). The studies used two very different approaches to gather data about

the second home owners and the socio-economic impact on the host community. The

study on De Waterkant can be considered especially unique as it considered second

homes within a major metropolitan area, research seldom embarked upon in

international second homes scholarship. Given the time period this paper provided

second home researchers with a novel perspective on ‘urban second homes’,

particularly in a developing world context. These studies essentially provided a set of

conclusions that would later become hypotheses for future investigation.

First, the two studies established the use of rates base data and forwarding addresses

as methodology by which second homes would be identified in all subsequent second

home investigations. Second, they also established the socio-economic profile of

second home owners – predictably, it was thought at that time second home owners

were white, male, wealthy, highly-educated and mobile. Third, this pointed the

research agenda into the direction of what kind of economic impacts these second

home owners had on their host communities, and how these economic benefits could

be utilised and maximised. It provided a series of issues that were later confirmed

regarding the negative consequence of second homes specifically concerning

permanent residents’ concerns about rising living costs, property prices and the effect

of seasonality on their quality of living and economic survival. These investigations

also established the notion that there was a positive relationship between the

frequency of second home use and elevated levels of economic benefit. This is linked

to involvement of management companies in the short term letting of properties as

tourist accommodation, a trend that would later be seen as quite common. In addition,

this investigation showed that second homes could form part of a broader process of

8

both urban and rural gentrification that has its own set of negative and positive

impacts (see Visser & Kotze, 2008). To date, this second paper is the only

investigation over the past decade based within a metropolitan environment or large-

scale urban context in South Africa.2 The majority of the research cases had been in

small urban/rural contexts similar to the majority of second home investigations

internationally (see Müller, 2004).

Following these two initial papers, the focus shifted to the potential spatially

differentiated impacts associated with second homes. 'Second Homes Tourism in

Africa: reflections on the South African Experience' (Visser, 2005) and 'South Africa

has second homes too! An exploration of the unexplored' (Visser, 2006) attempted to

compare and contrast the socio-economic impacts of second homes in different small

town locations. These papers, in part, attempted to gauge the differences in second

home ownership from one geographical location to another in terms of their socio-

economic profile, as well as scale and scope of second home impacts. However, there

were some differences in terms of the different methodologies used. This proved to be

important for the future development of second home research by considering other

methods as an important part of understanding second home tourism. Nevertheless,

these first comparative investigations did support findings made in earlier studies and

also confirmed that in many ways (white) second home development in South Africa

mirrored many of the processes in the developed north. Such similarities include, for

example, second homes becoming places of retirement, as well as broader processes

of consumption-led migration, the importance of second homes as investment

vehicles, and the general processes of production-led migration to the high-amenity

landscapes for potential economic opportunities and employment (see Hall, 2005).

9

The importance of Johannesburg and Pretoria (two virtually adjoining metropoles),

Cape Town, and Durban as the second home tourism generating regions had been

established. These studies also warned that the overdevelopment of tourism

economies in these locations would lead to loss of community and natural amenity,

which would destroy the original reason why second home owners migrate to their

second homes.

Second homes, economic development, the post-productivist countryside and

issues of method

After these initial exploratory investigations, it became apparent that second home

tourism research required a more specific theoretical home than merely presenting

descriptive empirical investigations in a broad tourism/geography studies context.

Post-productivism,2 an interdisciplinary paradigm attempting to explain broader

processes of rural change globally, appeared to find resonance with the preliminary

conclusions that have been drawn in the initial studies. Attempts were made to link

second home tourism to the process of post-productivism through the economic

impacts of second home tourism. The first attempt in this regard ('Changing

countrysides, changing villages: second homes in Rhodes, South Africa')

(Hoogendoorn et al., 2009) investigated the changes in the countryside of a part of the

Eastern Cape province of South Africa to investigate how broader processes of

tourism develop through the economic impacts of second homes. This was especially

important given the growth challenges in agriculture in South Africa since the demise

of apartheid. This investigation hinted to the broader macro-economic changes that

have taken places that underpinned changes in the South African countryside, parts

thereof to moving from a productivist to a post-productivist countryside. This initial

10

investigation then led to a doctoral thesis entitled Second homes and local economic

impacts in the South African post-productivist countryside (Hoogendoorn, 2010),

investigating this process in a number of different locations in South Africa, such as

Dullstroom (in Mpumalanga province), Greyton (Western Cape), and Clarens (Free

State). This subsequently led to a more detailed investigation into the Clarens area

(Hoogendoorn and Visser, 2011a). This thesis and paper draw together the different

processes that have occurred in the post-productivist developments in the South

African rural context, leading to the following conclusions.

The elements and processes of the South African post-productivist countryside linked

closely to many of the indicators mentioned by Ilbery and Bowler (1998) but it also

includes some issues that are more specific to the South African experience. The most

influential and powerful process that forced the South African countryside into a post-

productivist state has been the demise of apartheid. The decline in the number of

active farmers has been widespread and has subsequently had a detrimental impact on

the physical and symbolic meanings of the countryside. The decline in active farmers

was the result of a number of factors. The transition from heavily subsidised

agriculture to limited subsidisation has arguably been one of the most influential

factors behind these changes. These include broader processes of agricultural and

rural change such as recession, technological advancements, saturation of markets,

agricultural decline, freezing of assets, and disinvestment, as well as competition with

highly subsidised international food markets. The influence of large and industrialised

farmers who have acquired large tracts of land and have initiated many farm

consolidation endeavours have had a widespread influence. It has, inter alia, created

offshoot processes such as pushing former farm owners and their workers off the land

11

either to small towns in their respective districts, or increased urbanisation to major

urban centres. Because of fewer farmers and limited subsidisation, none of the towns

and regions in these investigations were able to sustainably support their respective

agricultural cooperatives. This process has not only been evident in that study but is a

widespread occurrence across the country. Changes from primary produce to other

secondary produce have also had a marked affect. For example, movements from

sheep and cattle farming to citrus and wine farming have seen many countrysides

change their infrastructure to accommodate changes in produce. In addition, many of

the changes in the countryside have been influenced by the effects of crime and more

specifically livestock theft. In addition, post-apartheid policy shifts have also played a

role in the post-productivist transition. The dismantling of the so-called ‘commando’

system, a form of community policing comprising mostly white farmers in a

particular district, has exposed many farmers to unsafe environments. Heavy losses in

terms of their livelihoods and personal attacks have led many farmers to reconsider

their livelihood strategies. On-farm diversification that incorporates tourism activities,

has become one of the main means by which all of the towns involved aimed to

maintain or expand their economic base.

Diversification towards tourism has, in fact, become widespread. The study

augmented the development of small towns as tourism towns in the hinterland of

South Africa, instead of archetypal second home towns and villages along the coast

(i.e. Hermanus, Jeffreys Bay, Plettenberg Bay or Amanzimtoti) of the country. It has

to be noted that the towns in this investigation are, by and large, champions of the

transition from agricultural service centres to bustling rural tourism destinations.

Although numerous other examples exist across South Africa, this diversification has

12

taken place at a lesser level, but still significant enough for investigation. It was

argued that the importance of second homes should not be underestimated as a key

phenomenon in laying the foundation for greater diversified economic activities to

take place in urban areas but also on farms themselves.

Urban change in the post-productivist countryside because of second homes and the

development of low-cost housing subsidised by the state is of concern to many

tourism entrepreneurs in terms of the aesthetics of the town and its place marketing

possibilities. As Donaldson (2009) aptly mentions the tourism developments and

property boom have created exclusive tourist spaces and an expanding tourism and

hospitality industry. The post-productivist countryside and the limited work available

in agriculture have forced many unemployed labourers to move to towns. The main

attracting factor has been to find employment in the tourism sectors of these towns.

Unfortunately, minimal job opportunities have been created by the tourism sector to

develop a barrier against the rapidly increasing populations and unemployment in

these towns. Thus, employment that has been created by tourism is simply not

sufficient for the potential labour pool.

On the one hand, it was found that bustling tourism towns (in the former white group

areas) with very small populations had developed, in part, because of the

establishment of second homes. On the other hand, and in most cases, an (in)formal

settlement (former black group area) with rapidly growing populations and large

developments in terms of social housing, but limited employment opportunities, have

emerged. The question remains whether or not these towns will be able to keep their

small town ‘feel’ while populations increase and severe polarisation continues given

13

the historical and current economic and social circumstances of the country. How will

they ethically go about developing their tourism endeavours while being sensitive to

the previously and currently disadvantaged cohorts that inhabit these towns? A great

drawback of these investigations is that it did not consider many of these questions at

any great length.

Although second homes play a role in the development of the countryside it has also

recently been more aggressively argued that second homes can actively be deployed

as a developmental driver. The dire economic conditions of many rural areas in South

Africa present a prominent challenge for those investigating Local Economic

Development (LED) through tourism in the Southern African context (see C.M.

Rogerson, 2010, and C.M. Rogerson & J.M. Rogerson, 2010), in which second homes

play a role. Therefore, research has been re-aligned our research to explore the

economic impacts of second home ownership within a range of small towns

(Hoogendoorn & Visser, 2010, 2011b). The five small towns investigated were

Clarens, Dullstroom, Greyton, Rhodes, and Nieu-Bethesda, leading to the conclusion

that the second homes in these towns hold significant impact to the tourism economy

of these places. However, LED strategies need to be re-aligned to include second

home tourism as a means of economic upliftment in these otherwise economically

marginalised locations. It was concluded that the financial reach of the major cities of

South Africa is substantial and can, at least in part, help these towns through

employing domestic workers, gardeners, patronising restaurants and other

entrepreneurial ventures. In fact, it was found that close on a quarter of rates and taxes

of these towns are paid by second home owners. The payment of these rates and taxes

is quite important, especially in local and district municipalities that are bankrupt or

14

heading towards bankruptcy in areas plagued by a weak rates base, chronic skills

shortages, corrupt municipal management and struggling agricultural sectors.

Unfortunately, the positive economic impacts are often only for the selected few who

have the infrastructure set up to receive this. It would be important to encourage

second home owners to make their second homes economically viable for the local

communities in which they are situated by, for example, not paying domestic workers

and gardeners exploitative wages and insisting on using local contractors to build or

renovate second homes where possible. In addition, the value of breaking the

influence of seasonality in owner visitation could be bridged by also encouraging

second home owners to rent out their properties (see Bieger, Beritelli & Weinert,

2007), so that towns and villages can enjoy the more constant benefits of a relatively

constant flow of tourists to their area. These issues might seem marginal in the

broader scheme of the economic realities of rural South Africa, however, the point to

make would be that any economic support is better than no support at all.

Finally, with the maturation of investigating second home tourism, reflective work in

terms of methodology and fieldwork has also taken place with a paper entitled 'The

thorny issue of identifying second homes in South Africa' (Hoogendoorn & Visser,

2009). The majority of the studies that we have conducted relied on rates and taxes

listings provided by the local municipalities. In some cases, these have proved to be

accurate, however in other cases these listings might have been out-dated, incorrect

and in some cases inaccessible. In addition, there were significant labour intensive

practices, such as having to check rates base data manually, owing to many

inconsistencies in the manner in which address listings are compiled. As a

15

consequence, new techniques have been explored, overlaying rates data with water

and electricity consumption measurements to augment the rates and taxes address

listings and determine whether a property is a second home or a primary residence.

Although the technique does help with the initial filtering of data, it is still not

accurate enough to automate and still requires manual checking by researchers though

somewhat less intensively. Nevertheless, researchers are now able to identify second

homes in larger areas. In terms of fieldwork and its particular relationship to second

homes, contributions have also been made.

There are other issues at hand as well. Drawing inspiration from a contribution to

Michael Hall's Fieldwork in Tourism collection (Hoogendoorn & Visser, 2011c),

issues such as researcher positionality and political temporal contingencies of the

post-apartheid dispensation, as related to second homes have come into view with the

paper 'Stumbling over researcher positionality and political-temporal contingency in

South African second home tourism research' (Hoogendoorn & Visser, 2012). It was

argued that researchers of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, and gender need to

consider their positionality in retrieving data in often-remote rural localities where

these issues play an important part of the data collection and research.

Some current investigations: filling gaps

The first wave of research has on the whole been exploratory, aiming to see

connections between second home debates in the developed north with those in South

Africa. In addition, the work has been concerned primarily with the economic aspects

of second homes. However, three issues – that of the environmental, social impacts of

second homes and second home ownership by the black majority of the country –

16

have been overlooked until recently. In large part, this merely reflects particular

researchers interests in the economic aspects of second homes and how it fits into

actual and potential economic development in a range of places. Currently researchers

now aim at addressing this shortcoming by focusing on such issues, particularly

through the research of postgraduate students.

During the past ten years, it became quite clear that in the case of South Africa,

second home tourism is not exclusive to the white, wealthy, mobile and educated.

Because of the social engineering policies of the apartheid regime, migration has

stayed an important part of everyday life for many poor or middle-income people.

This form of research was initiated by a paper entitled 'Low income earners as second

home tourists in South Africa?' (Hoogendoorn, 2011) that focuses on Soweto in

Johannesburg. The main argument has been that understanding second home tourism

only as an elite phenomenon is not adequate in describing the complex processes of

labour migration and tourism migration that lead to their development. The contention

is to connect current observations to work by investigators such as Halfacree (2012)

and Overvåg (2011), who have shown the existence and the importance of ‘hetero-

local identities’ and the idea of the ‘multi-house home’ in the global north. This

potentially means southern and northern perspectives of research on second homes

might be converging, at least from a conceptual and theoretical perspective even

though the materiality of the second homes in question might differ.

Second, a recent project has been launched on local residents' and second home

owners' perceptions of the environmental impacts of second homes in the

Hartbeespoort region, specifically on the dam with a paper 'Overshooting the

17

environmental carrying capacity of second homes? The case of Hartbeespoortdam'

(Long & Hoogendoorn, 2013). Preliminary results from the project showed that

although the greening of the tourism sector has become extremely important (J.M.

Rogerson & Sims, 2012), the highly educated, extremely wealthy second home

owners of Hartbeespoort essentially believe that they and the use of their property

have no or very little impact on the local environment. This is despite the fact that

more than a third of the second homes are newly built, in gated enclosures, or on

greenfield sites at the water's edge. The second home owners access these homes with

vehicles that are 'heavy' on fuel, consume vast quantities of water to irrigate lavish

gardens, rarely recycle while at their second homes and put enormous pressure on

sewage and refuse removal infrastructure that cannot handle the pressure. Preliminary

conclusions have shown that each second home has noticeable environmental

impacts, and these houses are accessed mostly fortnightly or monthly; this being over

and above the impact of their first homes and other second homes. (More than a third

of second home owners also have additionl second homes along the coast).

Nevertheless, second home owners ironically feel that the decline in environmental

quality, for which they are partly to blame, is severely affecting their second homes

and consequently their investments, their health, and their emotional attachment to

their second homes. Close to 40% of the second home owners are considering selling

their properties as a result. Problematically, however, 25% of the second home

owners feel they should sell their property and buy a second home elsewhere, which

consequently means that certain environmental problems are just shifted to other

natural environments with higher place utility.

18

Third, another project currently underway is concerned with the social impact of

second homes in a small town in the eastern Free State. What makes this study unique

is the fact that it covers all races, social and class cohorts in this location. Preliminary

results demonstrate not only the extremely complex relationships between second

home owners and permanent residents but also internally within each cohort. A

further novelty in this study is that it is the first investigation to position 'poor black'

and 'wealthy white' second home owners in relation to each another. In addition, the

relationships of these two groups are pitted against both rich and poor permanent

black and white residents in the context of the perceived impact of second homes on

them.

Future prospects for second home research in South Africa and the global south

Going forward, a range of potential research paths can be identified. Given the

enormous second home footprint in South Africa and indeed internationally, it is

surprising how few scholars have shown interest in their impact and development.

From an urban studies perspective, it seems curious that a phenomenon which shapes

and reshapes so many urban spaces across the South African urban hierarchy remains

ignored for the most part. For example, with one exception, none of the urban and

regional planning schools at South African universities have produced research on

second homes. It seems rather odd that South African academics cannot see the

economic, social, and environmental significance of second homes on urban and rural

spaces. In terms of historical geography, numerous studies could still be undertaken in

a large number of towns along the Western and Eastern Cape coast and the KwaZulu-

Natal coasts that emerged initially as ‘second home’ towns and have moved away

19

entirely from this land-use function to being permanently settled (examples like

Ballito and Umhlanga come to mind).

Moreover, second homes ought to be more closely connected to issues of local

government service delivery and governacence, an issue that is starting to emerge as a

research theme in the developed north (Åkerlund, Lipkina and Hall, 2014). The

current research record has not in any meaningful manner connected the spatio-

temporal mobility of second home owners to stressors in service delivery in a range of

cities and towns across the South African tourism space economy. Suggestive

evidence from the popular press in some second home tourism sites has indicated that

the second home visitation during high seasons has led to major strain on local

electricity, water and sewage services. For example, in the Eastern Free State, high

levels of second home visitation over the Easter and mid-Winter school holiday

breaks have seen massive drops in water pressure and provision. Similarly,

infrastructure related problems have been recorded along both the KwaZulu-Natal

North and South Coast areas – all well established second home locations (Visser,

2003). In the Western Cape, other issues such as vehicle traffic have been highlighted

as major concerns. In addition, there is a need to investigate the role of local

government’s impacts on second home investment and divestment owing to either

their competence or incompetence in local government service delivery.

Finally, national government policy development in terms of second home

development across South Africa is required. There is currently no national,

provincial or local government policy development on these issues. Perhaps part of

this oversight is that second homes are not easily quantifiable, and in the South

20

African context, there is a labour intensive phenomenon to investigate. In this respect,

it can only be hoped that national government agencies such as the South African

Revenue Service and/or Statistics South Africa could develop a database of the

number and location of second homes across the country – something similar to the

Swedish database Astrid. This would allow governmental organisations and

researchers alike to monitor developments in terms of the ebbs and flows of this type

of tourism. At the time of writing, second homes and ownership have received

practically no official policy responses. In the mid-2000s there was a momentary

flurry of central government debate concerning foreign residential ownership.

However, even in those areas popular among overseas second home investors, it was

clear that their involvement in the residential property market was limited and

concentrated in small pockets of mainly high value properties. Consequently, their

impact on the total housing market, particularly in relation to the poor majority, was

negligible. What government policy-makers ought to consider is in which ways they

can utilise second homes as a driver of, among many objectives, local economic

development. However, given that in a recent debate President Jacob Zuma noted that

foreign property ownership might be ended in South Africa, perhaps not.

An aspect of second homes, which is often the outcome of migration between the

second home and the permanent residence, is the eventual occurrence of residential

tourism, as seen in a range of context, including the developing south (Van Noorloos,

2013). The local discourse has not as yet considered this issue in any depth. In this

respect, the presence of non-residents in South Africa, both from the continent and

overseas, provides a new research niche. Similar to what we have aimed to achieve

with the second homes project to date, research into the following issues needs to be

21

embarked upon. The identification of residential tourists is required along with

subsequent investigations into whether or not their local occurrence can be

meaningfully connected to debates seen elsewhere. This understanding of residential

tourism would flow into a broader understanding of tourism accommodation in the

Southern African context.

The work of Gallent, Hall and Müller, and current scholarship in South Africa has

helped the development of an understanding of second home tourism over the last

decade. However, a broader and more inclusive understanding of second home

tourism in the global south will definitely challenge understandings of northern

debates around such themes as internationalisation, conflict, migration and mobility,

and how it is perceived in the global south – more specifically, how debates about

environmental, economic and social impacts in the case of South Africa will

potentially differ vastly in localities elsewhere in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Further research may also alter and deepen understandings of broader issues such as

changing countrysides, methodologies, and researcher positionality.

Notes

1. Other significant contributions at the same time were made by Gallent (2007),

Gallent, Mace and Tewdwr-Jones (2003; 2005), and Dijst, Lanzendorf,

Barendregt and Smit (2005).

2. See the influential work of Halfacree and Boyle (1998); Halfacree (2007);

Wilson (2001); Wilson and Rigg (2003); Wilson (2008) on post-productivism

and multi-functionality in the global countryside.

References

Åkerlund, U., Lipkina,O and Hall, C.M., 2014: Second home governance in the EU:

in and out of Finland and Malta. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, DOI:

10.1080/19407963.2014.933229 (in press).

22

Barke, M., 1991: The growth and changing pattern of second homes in Spain in the

1970s, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 107(1), 12-21.

Bieger, T., Beritelli, P. and Weinert, R., 2007: Understanding second home owners

who do not rent – insights into the proprietors of self-catered accommodation,

Hospitality Management, 26, 263–276.

Coppock, J.T. (ed), 1977: Second homes: Curse or blessing?, Pergamon, Oxford.

Cottyn, I., 2011: The spatial and socio-cultural impacts of second home development:

A case study of Franschhoek, South Africa, Unpublished M.A. dissertation,

Utrecht University, Utrecht.

Dijst, M., Lanzendorf, M., Barendregt, A. and Smit, L., 2005: Second homes in

Germany and the Netherlands: Ownership and travel impact explained,

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 96 (2), 139–152.

Donaldson, R., 2009: Making of a tourism-gentrified town: The case of Greyton,

South Africa, Geography, 94 (2): 88–99.

Gallent, N., 2007: Second homes, community and a hierarchy of dwelling, Area, 39

(1), 97–106.

Gallent, N., Mace, A. and Tewdwr-Jones, M., 2003: Dispelling a myth? Second

homes in rural Wales, Area, 35 (3), 271–284.

Gallent, N., Mace, A. and Tewdwr-Jones, M., 2005: Second homes: European

perspectives and UK policies, Ashgate, Aldershot.

Go, F., 1988: Holiday homes in Europe, Travel & Tourism Analyst, 1, 20-33.

Halfacree, K., 2012: Heterolocal identities? Counter-urbanisation, second home, and

rural consumption in an era of mobilities, Population, Space and Place, 18,

209–224.

Halfacree, K. and Boyle, P., 1998: Migration, rurality and the post-productive

countryside, in Boyle, P. and Halfacree, K. (eds), Migration into rural areas,

Wiley, Chicester, pp. 1–20.

Halfacree, K., 2007: Trial by space for a ‘radical rural’: Introducing alternative

localities, representations and lives, Journal of Rural Studies, 23, 125–141.

Hall, C.M. and Müller, D.K., 2004: Tourism, mobility and second homes: Between

elite landscape and common ground, Channel View, Clevedon.

Hall, C.M., 2005: Reconsidering the geography of tourism and contemporary

mobility, Geographical Research, 43 (2), 125–139.

Hoggart, K., and Buller, H., 1994: Property agents as gatekeepers in British house

purchases in rural France, Geoforum, 25, 173-187.

Hoogendoorn, G., 2010: Second homes and local economic impacts in the South

African post-productivist countryside, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,

University of the Free State, Bloemfontein.

Hoogendoorn, G., 2011: Low income earners as second home tourists in South

Africa? Tourism Review International, 14, 37–50.

23

Hoogendoorn, G., Marais, L. and Visser, G., 2009: Changing countrysides, changing

villages: Second homes in Rhodes, South Africa, South African Geographical

Journal, 91(2), 75–83.

Hoogendoorn, G., Mellett, R. and Visser, G., 2005: Second homes as urban tourism:

Case studies from South Africa, Urban Forum, 16 (2/3), 112–154.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2004: Second homes and small town

(re)development: The case of Clarens, Journal of Family Ecology and

Consumer Sciences, 32, 105–115.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2010: The role of second homes in the local

economic development in five small South African towns. Development

Southern Africa, 27 (4), 547–562.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2011a: Tourism, second homes and an emerging

South African post-productivist countryside, Tourism Review International,

14, 183–197.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2011b: Economic development through second

home development: Evidence from South Africa, Tijdschrift voor

Economische en Sociale Geografie, 102 (3), 275–289.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2011c: Researching second home tourism in South

Africa: Methodological challenges and innovations, in Hall, C.M. (ed),

Fieldwork in tourism: methods, issues and reflections, Routledge, London, pp.

188–198.

Hoogendoorn, G. and Visser, G., 2012: Stumbling over researcher positionality and

political-temporal contingency in South African second home tourism

research, Critical Arts, 26 (3), 254–271.

Hui, E.C.M. and Yu, K.H., 2009: Second homes in the Chinese Mainland under ‘one

country, two systems’: A cross-border perspective, Habitat International, 33,

106–113.

Ilbery, B. and Bowler, I., 1998: From agricultural productivism to post-productivism,

in Ilbery, B. (ed), The geography of rural change, Longman, Harlow, pp. 57–

84.

Jordan, J.W., 1980: The summer people and the natives: some effects of tourism in a

Vermon vacation village, Annals of Tourism Research, 7(1), 34-55.

Ljungdahl, S.G., 1938: Sommar-Stockholm, Ymer, 58, 218-242.

Long, D. and Hoogendoorn, G., 2013: Overshooting the environmental carrying

capacity of second homes? The case of Hartbeespoort, South Africa. South

African Geographical Journal, 95(1), 91-104..

Matteucci, X., 2011: Second home tourism: An examination of recent developments

on the South Pacific coast of Nicaragua, Investigaciones Turisticas, 1, 21–36.

Matteucci, X., Lund-Durlacher, D. and Beyer, M., 2008: The socio-economic and

environmental impact of second home tourism: The South Pacific Coast of

Nicaragua example, in Keller, K. and Bieger, T. (eds), Real Estate and

Destination Development in Tourism, Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, pp. 149–

164.

24

Müller, D.K., 2004: Mobility, tourism, and second homes, in A.A. Lew, C.M. Hall

and A.M. Williams (eds), A companion to tourism, Blackwell, Oxford, pp.

387–398.

Müller, D.K. and Hoogendoorn, G., 2013: Second homes: Curse or blessing? A

review 36 years later, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism,

13(4), 353-369..

Overvåg, K., 2011: Second homes: Migration or circulation? Norsk Geografisk

Tidsskrift, 65, 154–164.

Pienaar, J.J. and Visser, G., 2009: The thorny issue of identifying second homes in

South Africa, Urban Forum, 20 (4), 455–469.

Rogerson, C.M., 2010: Local economic development in South Africa: Strategic

challenges, Development Southern Africa, 27 (4), 481–496.

Rogerson, C.M. and Rogerson, J.M., 2010: Local economic development in Africa:

Global context and research directions, Development Southern Africa, 27 (4),

465–480.

Rogerson, J.M. and Sims, S., 2012: The greening of urban hotels in South Africa:

Evidence from Gauteng, Urban Forum, 23 (3), 391–407.

Van Noorloos, F., 2012: Whose place in the sun? Residential tourism and its

implications for equitable and sustainable development in Guanacaste, Costa

Rica, Eburon, Delft.

Visser, G., 2013: Looking beyond urban poor: The new terra incognita for urban

geography, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 47, 75–93.

Visser, G., 2003: Visible, yet unknown: Reflections on second-home development in

South Africa, Urban Forum, 14 (4), 379–407.

Visser, G., 2004a: Second homes: Reflections on an unexplored phenomenon in

South Africa, in Hall, C.M. and Müller, D.K. (eds), Tourism, Mobility and

Second Homes: Between Elite Landscape and Common Ground (196–214),

Channel View, Clevedon.

Visser, G., 2004b: Second homes and local development: Issues arising from Cape

Town’s De Waterkant, GeoJournal, 60 (3), 259–271.

Visser, G., 2006: South Africa has second homes too! An exploration of the

unexplored, Current Issues in Tourism, 9 (4/5), 351–383.

Visser, G. and Kotze, N., 2008: The State of new-build gentrification in central Cape

Town, South Africa, Urban Studies, 45 (12), 2565–2593.

Wilson, G.A. and Rigg, J., 2003: ‘Post-productivist’ agricultural regimes and the

South: Discordant concepts?, Progress in Human Geography, 27, 681–707.

Wilson, G.A., 2001: From productivism to post-productivism … and back again?

Exploring the (un)changed natural and mental landscapes of European

agriculture, Transactions for the Institute of British Geographers, 26, 77–102.

Wilson, G.A., 2008: From ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ multifunctionality: conceptualising

farm-level multifunctional transitional pathways, Journal of Rural Studies, 24,

367–383.

25

Wolfe, R.I., 1951: Summer Cottagers in Ontario, Economic Geography, 27 (1), 10–

32.

Wolfe, R.I., 1952: Wasaga Beach: the divorce from the geographic environment,

Canadian Geographer, 2 (1), 57–65.

26