Abstract:

The second home can be further classified into dichotomous categories, according to the geographic distribution. That is: suburban and vacation-oriented homes. The second type literally is either located in a tourist area or, more or less, able to seduce tourists as homeowners to regularly dwell there for holidays, despite its remote location. There are many factors affecting (Chinese) tourists’ practices of purchasing second homes, yet the pleasant climate, which arguably possesses winter and summer comfortable climates, has been considered to be the most prominent one. However，insofar sparse, if any，academic interest has been cast on the extent to which different types of comfortable climates could possibly influence the demand for vacation-oriented second homes．Therefore, the focus of this research is to examine the impact mechanism of climate on sale of and demand for vacation-oriented second homes. Based on the comparative study of the tourism-driven real estate development at dichotomous cities in southwest China，namely, Jinghong city of Xishuangbanna and Tengchong city，this paper first unpacks that the second home demand in Xishuangbanna is greater than that in Tengchong．Through carrying out qualitative empirical researches，this study goes on to explore and investigate the reasons behind the scenes. The research results manifest that the pleasant climate is the most important driver for vacation-oriented second home development in the two targeted cities. The geographical distribution of different type of comfortable climate resource principally affects the sale of and demand for vacation-oriented second homes for the following reasons. First, pleasant climate is indeed attractive to second home owners in view of its therapeutic effects. And it is conducive to outdoor activities. Nevertheless, different type of comfortable climate resource is essentially immobile and chiefly featured in a particular area，so people often have to travel across a long distance to some places to enjoy favorable climate. It is the characteristics of climate resources that have stimulated the demand for long-distance home ownership. Regarding the circumstances in China，the winter comfortable climate is，overall，more competitive than its summer counterpart，because the former one is a scarce resource in this nation，whereas，the latter is widely distributed and relatively replaceable because people are able to create microclimate to the compensate heat through environmental design. This paper pays attention to the attraction of climate to long-distance tourists, highlights the impact of climate on the demand for vacation-oriented second homes, and explores the relationship between the geographical distribution of different climate types and the demands for second homes. It provides a new perspective for the study of the spatial distribution characteristics of second homes. Furthermore, the authors point out that the superiority of climate resource lies not only in the degree of comfort, but also in relation to the type of comfortable climate, which provides strong suggestions on the exploitation of comfortable climatic resources in favour of developing vacation-oriented second homes．

Key words: climate, vacation-oriented second home, purchasing demand, Tengchong city, Jinghong city of Xishuangbanna