Comparative Analysis of the Management and Planning of Second Homes in Selected Countries

Today, a managing issue in rural areas is how to take a proper advantage of beautiful rural lands and landscapes. The utilization of rural lands has several dimensions, but one of the most important and developing usages of these lands is the tourism and entertainment dimension. This type of usage has a great influence on the stability of rural lands and regions through the establishment of the second homes in rural areas and the tourist’s longer residence, compared to other types of tourism. In the procedure of managing and planning of developing the second homes in many countries, the governments try their best to face with the least environmental side effects and therefore, every land usage is determined based on the sustainable development plans. Hence, precise study of managing experiences and second-home planning in other countries can provide the required experiential instructions’ bases to establish the sustainable managing structure with Iran’s situation.
This paper is one of those comparative studies with qualitative analysis and content-analysis method. The aim of this paper is to reveal the shortcomings and strengths of the management framework and rural tourism planning (second homes), and to achieve this objective, the rural tourism planning’s structure (second homes) of Iran is compared to Turkey, South Africa, Portugal and Brazil. The selection of these countries is due to the existence of management and planning for second homes in them.
Discussion and The government has a directorial role in tourism planning (second homes) in Portugal and Brazil. In South Africa, the role of local participation has increased. In Turkey and Iran, this planning is centralized and done by the government. The relationship between the different levels of planning in aforementioned countries is based on their planning framework. Plans are done in Iran and Turkey in a concentrated way, but in Portugal, the relationship between the planning levels is based on the Federal system. In South Africa, the planning framework is adapting the local management to the higher levels of management. The level of local management in managing structure of Brazil is also determined. The four aforementioned countries (Brazil, Turkey, Portugal and South Africa) have a native paradigm to plan for second homes in tourism.
According to the study of the planning for rural tourism and second homes in aforementioned countries and comparing such thing to the studies and programs that are formulated in managing and tourism planning of second homes in Iran, we will face with two types of issues in our country: general issues related to substantial level of planning in this country (comprehensive planning view, being sectional, lack of a proper position for rural tourism and second home in development plans and …) and regional issues (low level of participation of locals and NGOs in rural tourism planning (second homes) – defect in infrastructural facilities – the up-down relationship of management with higher levels and …). Considering the existing issues of management and proper planning for the second homes in Iran, the following strategies are suggested in order to reach to a stable development of second-home tourism: The levels of planning: national (determining a strategy for rural and tourism problems – determining the position of rural and tourism plans in national plans), regional (the interrelation of governmental and private organizations in rural issues – performing implementation actions for rural and tourism projects – prioritizing the rural and tourism actions), local (providing the required actions for tourism and rural projects – motivating the local tourism in rural institutions – the interrelation of local management with higher levels); designing a native paradigm (considering to the social, cultural, and economical stability in …. – constructing a number of parks to develop the second homes – establishing security, environmental and framework rules); the role of the government (directorial and motivational role for tourism in local level); organizational interrelation (performing the tourism problems in an organization or a ministry).