The Shift from Hotels and Lodges to Second-Home Villages in Mountain-Resort Accommodation

Abstract

The importance of second-home villages compared with the traditional accommodation industry has been seldom studied and is not well understood. A common belief is that the hotels constitute the gravitational point of the ski resort. Yet both data and general observation suggest that this orthodoxy has ceased to reflect the changes that have occurred over the last couple of decades. We are thus able to conclude that the second-home villages have become the new economic gravitational point of Norwegian winter-tourism resorts, and both the trade and the politicians need to act accordingly. The traditional accommodation providers now face increasing challenges. These providers could choose to stay in their traditional but decreasing markets by lowering their prices, reducing the number of commercial beds, and becoming active providers of food and beverages to the second-home dweller. Or they could close down completely and sell off to estate developers who will convert hotels or lodges into apartments for the second-home market. The continuing focus on how to save the traditional accommodation industry, which has lost its customers to the second-home market, is misguided. Instead a strategy is needed to nurture and develop the opportunities created by the rapid development of the second-home villages.