It is well recognised that there can be strong emotional bonds between people and the properties where earlier generations have farmed and lived. These relations outrun economic reason and affect how individuals act, plan and relate to these places today and in the future. But what about the bonds and acts regarding a second home, a leisure place that mainly is a consequence of our modern, urban society? Many second homes are being shared within families and several generations may jointly use second homes. This chapter examines second home usage within families and over generations. It analyses second home users’ enactment, including their thinking, feeling and acting, of their second home in relation to existing or future shared usage/ownership and generational change. Four different materials are used: a questionnaire survey of second home users, interviews of second home users, media discourse, and a survey. The results show that the bonds to the second home property are strong but vary between owners, the bonds being stronger among owners who inherited the property as compared to owners who had bought it. Conflicts between family members often start when the authority over the second home is being transferred between generations. It is not only those who live today that have to be taken into consideration when making decisions, but also those who had lived before and those who will come after are significant.

The impact of second home tourism in local destinations has been on the research agenda for some time now and can be considered as one of the eternal question in second home tourism research. In available literature it is often argued that second home owners do not contribute in any significant way to a positive local development at the destinations. On the other hand, there are studies arguing that second home owners do contribute to local development and offer one of few opportunities for many rural and peripheral areas. This study aims at contributing to this debate by exploring in what way second home owners engage in local associations at second home destinations in Sweden. Questions addressed relate to second home owners engagement, type of associations they engage in and utilization of second homes. The data used is retrieved from a nation-wide questionnaire survey to 4 000 randomly selected second home owners in Sweden during 2009. Results show that second home owners actively engage in the associational life at the destinations and is to be considered as a potential for local development rather than a problem for places that otherwise would have limited options.