Aristid Klumbies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, second home ownership created several owner benefits. This paper analyses price changes of second homes during the pandemic. It derives propositions for the impact of the pandemic on the value of second homes for its owners. The contribution draws on panel data of transaction prices for second homes from Switzerland, a country with traditionally strong second home ownership, provided by Wüest Partner. The results show that there is a significant price increase for second homes – especially compared to apartments – after the start of the COVID-19 crisis. They also show that prices even in certain second-class destinations have risen significantly during the pandemic. Different research propositions are derived like that buyers might look for less crowded places in the pandemic, and the reduced benefits of intensive infrastructures during a pandemic.

The author proposes a four-step process for destinations to actively engage with their second home owners. Engagement has risen to the top of many managers’ strategic wish lists in the last decade. The engagement theory helps understand how to design the relationship between a destination and their second home owners more productively. Nevertheless, most engagement research focuses on the demand side, i.e., how customers, employees, or investors engage with firms, brands, or destinations. This comparative case study examines engagement induced from the supply side, i.e., how destinations can actively engage their second home owners. The author finds that destinations must follow a four-step process to trigger engagement among their second home owners. If destinations focus on the visualization, accessibility, controllability, and utilization of their relationship with second home owners, they can engage second home owners in a structured and systematic way. The study advances the supply-side view of engagement and the flow-based view of tourist destinations. The findings significantly affect destination managers, policymakers, and tourism marketers.

This quantitative survey measures the engagement levels of second home owners from various Swiss destinations. It uses three established scales from engagement research. These scales come from the research areas of customer, employee, and investor engagement. Thus, the three roles of a second home owner (customer, co-producer, and investor) are covered. A total of 1’519 fully completed questionnaires are obtained. The findings show that engagement varies across different second home owners. Also, the engagement level of a second home owner is related to different independent variables. Moreover, drivers exist that destinations can use as leverage to actively influence second home owner engagement. The results suggest that increasing second home use intensity per year is significantly associated with less engagement. Additionally, they indicate that owning multiple second homes worldwide (more than one) is significantly related to an increasing engagement factor score.

The engagement construct emerges in three separate research streams within management research: customer engagement, employee engagement, and investor engagement. First, the study integrates the engagement literature in a cross-divisional, multidisciplinary way. Secondly, this comparative study aims to identify the antecedents for a destination to enter into an active engagement relationship with its second-home owners. Second-home owners combine the three roles of customer, co-producer, and investor. The study analyzes antecedents of supplier-induced engagement of second-home owners for a company-type and a community-type destination. 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives of tourism organizations, second-home owners’ associations, and the political municipalities from two Swiss destinations were conducted. The study identifies seven antecedents of supplier-induced engagement of second-home owners.

Schools have to invest in strengthening their links within the region they operate in and in increasing their perceived legitimacy within the region. The Business School Impact System (BSIS) provides school leadership teams with an instrument to systematically monitor the impacts of a school in their region and beyond.

This contribution discusses the drivers that increase the importance of an integrated view of the management of places. It highlights challenges in form of boundaries between and routes to institutionalized cooperation of different sectors. Thereby, it further develops the concept of destination management for an inclusive network and knowledge society.