Sweden is a popular holiday destination for people from all over Europe. Its beautiful nature, the possibility of various outdoor-activities and the quintessential Swedish traditions and life-style attract tourists and potential holiday-home-owners alike. Citizens especially from countries such as Denmark, Norway and Germany are buying houses mainly in the southern and western parts of Sweden, searching for a better, easier and more relaxed life in the Swedish countryside. In my study I chose "Högsby kommun", a small municipality situated in the county of Kalmar in Småland as an exemplary case-study to show how Swedish communities deal with the steady decline of inhabitants. The aim of the study is to examine how arguments are used to convince immigrants in moving to Högsby kommun and how they relate to motives of foreign second home owners. Which arguments are used in promoting the place and what kinds of motives have foreign buyers of second homes to choose Högsby kommun as a place to stay? It is a qualitative case study, information is collected through interviews with employee of Högsby kommun and real estate agents, a content analysis of brochures and e-mail questionnaire with second home owners from Germany. The theoretical approaches are counterurbanisation in relation to lifestyle, theory of place identity and promotion of places and research of the motives in buying a second home. The results of the study show that arguments and motives building on each other. The arguments are promoting mainly a beautiful nature, quietness, a relaxed lifestyle and inexpensive housing - all of this are even motives for  foreign second home buyers moving to Högsby kommun.

Skilled and educated workers are somewhat of a rarity for many rural and peripheral communities. The global migration trend where younger residents of these communities tend to leave for more populated areas leaves the communities with an older population that struggles to find new employees to replace those who retire. However, this does not mean that rural and peripheral communities are unattractive areas. Second-home owners verifies how these areas are attractive for certain individuals for various periods. More importantly, previous research show how second-home owners are often highly educated within their fields, they invest time in their host community, and they can potentially become permanent members of the society. Thus, this study aims to explore second-home owners potential of acting as a recruitment resource for the local labour market of the host community. This is done by using Vilhelmina municipality in Västerbotten county, Sweden, as an example. By using quantitative methods, the findings of this study suggest that the occupational background of second-home owners causes them to be a potential recruitment resource for the local labour market. However, the findings for the study suggest that the willingness to contribute to the local labour market is a mixed bag. Nevertheless, this study contributes to the current understandings of labour recruitment in rural and peripheral areas by confirming the possibility for extension of second-home owners as a resource. / Part of a research project at the Department of Geography at Umeå University called: Is the temporary population a resource?

This paper explores Gotland’s sustainable tourism mobility from a qualitative perspective in order to better understand how tourists choose their mode of transport in a sustainable way. Tourism transport accounts for the majority of tourism-related CO2 emissions compared to other tourism-related activities. There three types of tourists, real tourist, second-home owner, and residents of Gotland s are chosen to be the target groups investigated in this paper. Both private and public transport were included in order to get a more holistic view within sustainable tourism mobility in Gotland. Sustainable private transport mainly refers to driving in an electric vehicle (EV) or a biogas vehicle (BGV). Public transport refers to bus transport in Gotland. Behavioral change and effective policies are the two possible ways to make positive contribution to reduce those emissions. However, both positive and negative signs have shown that instigating behavioral change and formulating an effective policy within tourism industry can be taken longer time than expected to achieve the goal made by the municipality of Gotland, known as Region Gotland. For this paper, 4 interviews were conducted by interviewing 5 local experts all of whom are working in the field of sustainable tourism mobility. Their insightful thoughts could make this study more reliable and discerning. When it comes to process of data collection and data analysis, data were coded and analyzed using thematic approach. The study result reveals the need of forming the personal identity of tourist leaning toward sustainability and that identity plays a crucial role in travel planning and tourist-government communication. Therefore, the suggestions are made based on tourist behaviors and communications between various stakeholders. The result shows three most-likely happened events which are social campaigns, resource allocation with the support of tourism industry, and smart public charging networks planning