Second Homes: Curse or Blessing? A Review 36 Years Later

Terry Coppock's (1977c) edited collection, Second homes: Curse or blessing? (Oxford: Pergamon) remains the most influential work investigating second-home tourism. Coppock's edited collection explored second-home tourism in a variety of locations globally. Different themes were studied in the collection, which includes planning aspects of second-home development, spatial modelling and predictive modelling and second homes as holiday accommodation (to name but three). Over the last 30 years, second-home research has blossomed, especially since the mid-1990s. Thus, we found it fitting to review the marked influence of this edited collection 30 years after the first conference was held that formed the basis of this book. Therefore, this article will investigate the relevance of the issues identified during the 1970s to issues surrounding present-day second-home tourism. The argument made in this article is that many of the issues that Coppock identified remain important today; however, many of the issues identified are less relevant to many second-home landscapes in both the developed and developing worlds.