Second homes and local socio-economic development: the case of Croatia

Abstract

This paper contributes to the discussion on the impact of second homes growth on host areas by providing an analysis of the relationship of second home development and local socio-economic development in Croatia. For that purpose, we used regression and cluster analysis while the local government level was used as the unit of analysis. The results show that second home development in Croatia is associated with increased dynamism of the local economy, particularly with higher local budget income per capita. Concerning the social components of the local development, the analysis revealed that second home development is positively connected to the local educational structure and the population index change. The research findings also indicate that second homes and tourism have independently a positive effect on the local socio-economic development, but the combination of the intensive second home development with the intensive tourism development produces the effect of synergy that additionally stimulates local socio-economic development.