This article examines current developments towards workations as a new form of hybrid tourism driven by the Covid-19 pandemic. The neologism workation is composed of the words work and vacation – two ...terms that at first glance seem incompatible or even contradictory in tourism research. Since our study aims to delve deeper into the phenomenon of workation, we conducted a qualitative study in which we explored both the supply side (hotel managers) and the demand side (workationers). Based on the analysis of eleven qualitative interviews, we show that workationers neither fit into the category of working tourists nor traveling workers. Instead, the artificially created distinction between business and leisure tourism seems to be outdated, especially in a digitalized world.
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•Accelerated by the pandemic, workations are a new form of hybrid tourism.•Workationers combine work and vacations.
This paper critiques the centrality of work in capitalist societies and looks at people who have abandoned their location-bound jobs for the lifestyle of a digital nomad. Five months of fieldwork in ...Thailand during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that digital nomads aspired to have autonomy over their work, including reducing their work time. However, pursuing their ideal meant negotiating the desire to minimise labour hours on the one hand and guilt about not fitting the hegemonic values of hard work on the other. Digital nomads try to overcome the dominant work ethic in their talk about working productively. While these digital nomads generally spoke of ‘productivity’ in terms of autonomy and efficiency, concerns over ‘appearing lazy’ shifted the register to mainstream concepts of productivity, such as ‘hard work’. Drawing on philosophers of work and the need to take utopias seriously, this article proposes that even if small-scale and individualised, digital nomads’ attempts to reorganise their working lives are an important critique of work, especially in post-COVID trends toward more remote working.
The enthusiasm around remote and independent working has rapidly gained momentum in the last few years. The digital nomad phenomenon has frequently been portrayed as an exemplar of this pattern and ...referred to by the media as a highly location‐independent form of nomadic work. However, findings from this study highlight the centrality of various spaces in digital nomadic work and suggest finding and configuring these spaces allows digital nomads to accomplish productive work. Building on interviews with 23 digital nomads and analyzing pictures of workspaces from Twitter, this study examines the unique relationship among disparate workspaces, work practices, and technologies that shape nomadic work. Our findings refine the common argument that nomadic workers can work from “anywhere, anytime,” by attending to the large roles that space may play in shaping work.
In 1997, Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners published their future-looking manifesto Digital Nomad that, decades later, would present as a manifesto for a lifestyle movement. At the time, businesses ...and the US government were interested in looking at tele-commuting, productivity, and work-family balance. Critiques of a neoliberal economy provide insight into understanding the context of freelance and online, piecemeal employ- ment. This article examines the types of employment that digital nomads engage in, based on in-depth interviews with thirty-eight self-identified digital nomads. The participants mostly originate from wealthy, industrialized nations, and have many class privileges, but are underemployed compared to what their socio-economic status would historically suggest. As most participants are in the Millennial Generation, an overview of the shifting socio-economic status of this age-cohort is examined in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Union – notably their high educational achievements and increasingly precarious employment status. Many of the nomads were working part-time with their own micro-business, with few able to maintain full-time employment. Few have bene- fits such as healthcare, retirement, unemployment insurance, or family leave. While “freedom” is touted as the benefit of gig-work, by both industry management and digital nomad enthusiasts, this lifestyle marks a shift towards precarious employment – itself not a basis for economic freedom, nor security.
The rise of the digital labour market in recent years has stimulated the growth of the digital nomad community. To cater to this specific work-leisure segment, many co-living spaces are actively ...marketing their products to be the perfect accommodation solution to help overcome the isolation that urbanity and digital nomadism bring along. However, little research has been done to explore these new solutions of living circumstances and whether it enhances digital nomads’ lifestyle. This study is particularly interested in exploring the role of co-living spaces in digital nomads’ overall well-being. Through a grounded theory approach, 12 interviews with digital nomads living in co-living spaces are conducted and generated new insights. In doing so, the paper elaborates on the specific elements of co-living spaces that influence digital nomads’ experiences and subsequently explains how the elements of digital nomads’ overall well-being links to the neo-tribe theory. In the end, based on the neo-tribe characteristics exhibited by digital nomads, practitioners are given recommendations on how to improve the design and developments of co-living spaces to facilitate digital nomads’ well-being.
CoLiving involves facilities that combine work and life experiences, which challenge the traditional concept of home. This paper aims to map the journey of the CoLiving experience of digital nomads. ...The paper adopts a qualitative approach, combining content analysis of in-depth interviews with interpretation of the visual narratives of photos taken by 13 participants, who were recruited in Selina CoLive hotels. The study assessed: (RQ1) the most important information sources and communication channels that contribute to increase the awareness of CoLiving operators and destinations (awareness stage); (RQ2) the major motivators and trigger events that drive people to adopt a digital nomadism lifestyle (consideration stage); (RQ3) the selection criteria that underpin the decision to choose specific destinations and CoLiving spaces and the minimum requisites in terms of living, working and social needs (planning stage); (RQ4) the positive touchpoints that generate unique memorable emotions, which foster satisfaction and the negative ones that provoke dissatisfaction (experience stage); (RQ5) the sense of community and sense of place, resulting from the transformational experience of CoLiving are usually shared in social media, thereby generating electronic word-of-mouth (advocacy stage).
Purpose This study aims to reveal the food preferences and to define the typology of digital nomads as gastro-tourists. In this context, it is aimed to provide information on issues such as the ...importance of food culture in destination selection for digital nomads, food prices, local dishes, local food markets, religious restrictions, researching cultural cuisines, preparing meals and participating in gastronomic events. Design/methodology/approach Multiple qualitative methods were utilized in the research for this study. Digital nomads' comments, videos and semi-structured interviews constitute the data sources of the research, and the data obtained were analyzed by content analysis. Findings As a result of the study, it was seen that digital nomads do consider gastronomy in their destination selection, and five different gastro-tourist profiles were determined. These are Local Flavor Hunters, Gastronomy Adventurers, Budget-Conscious Food Lovers, Cultural Explorers and Health and Sustainability Focused People. Originality/value The theoretical contribution of the study is to provide information with regard to the food and beverage preferences of digital nomads and to contribute to filling a gap in the literature. The practical contribution of the study is to help formulate tourism marketing strategies in the destination and strategies for businesses in the tourism industry. Since digital nomads play important roles in destination promotion, it is important to determine their perspectives and typologies towards gastronomy. The results of the study will be useful for tourism industry components, such as academics, experts, travel businesses, tourism destinations and local food producers who research the tourism industry and travel trends.
Purpose Although existing studies provide valuable insight into how destinations create stimuli that support meaningful experiences, perceptions of different experiencescapes in the tourism context ...remain to be explored. This research aims to explore the experiencescape stimuli of female digital nomads. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative research method and was structured by combining multiple qualitative data collection tools with a triangulated approach to examining the experiencescape. Findings Based on the experiences of female digital nomads toward destinations, their perception of the experiencescape, which includes sensory, functional, social, natural and cultural stimuli, has been revealed. From the explanations regarding the metaphors, the female digital nomads in the research have positive perceptions about destination experiences and are satisfied with being digital nomads. Research limitations/implications The fact that the research is the first to focus on digital nomadism and experiencescape and that it reveals the perspective of female digital nomads who share their experiences in virtual communities, which is a research topic that is little emphasized in the literature, is a contribution to the theoretical framework on the subject. The practical contribution is that it will guide studies to improve and re-plan experiences in line with the stimuli emphasized by the female digital nomads studied. The results can play a supporting role in developing the market for female digital nomads. Originality/value This research offers a new perspective on exploring female digital nomads' perceptions of the destination experiencescape.
Purpose This paper aims to develop a vision for the future identifying how digital nomadism affects the labor markets in the tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative research ...method was used. The research data were collected using a semistructured interview form developed by the researcher. The sample consists of twenty people working in the tourism industry as tour guides, travel agency owners, accommodation sector employees and professional managers. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data. Findings It was found that employees in the tourism industry are familiar with digital nomadism, interact with employees working as digital nomads and may prefer the digital nomad way of working, while employees in the accommodation sector cannot work as digital nomads due to the nature of their work. It is shown that digital nomadism can be applied to tour guides and travel agency owners. Research limitations/implications The data was collected from employees of the accommodation sector, travel agencies, tour guides and employees of the Turkish tourism labor market. It is recommended that the tourism labor markets adapt to the digitalized world and adjust their working models in this context. Originality/value This is one of the first studies on the impact of digital nomadism on the tourism labor markets.
Purpose This study aims to reveal the travel insurance behavior of digital nomads systematically. For this purpose, the habits and preferences of digital nomads for travel and health insurance were ...investigated based on the problems they experience during their travels. Design/methodology/approach Within the scope of multimethod qualitative research, the insurance behaviors of digital nomads were investigated in depth by using both interview and content analysis techniques for social media comments. In the first stage of the study, the interview technique was used to describe the main factors underlying the insurance behaviors of digital nomads. In the second stage, the comments of digital nomads on social media platforms were evaluated by content analysis and themes regarding the insurance behaviors of digital nomads were reached. Findings The inadequacies of the current global system and national order determine the travel insurance behavior of digital nomads, who are generally opposed to the existing order and tend to escape from authority and routine. It was found that digital nomads care about the speed at which insurance companies meet their demands, the coverage of insurance policies (medical and travel-related components of insurance) and the cost of insurance behavior. Research limitations/implications This study aims to provide a new perspective to the literature by conducting multimethod qualitative research within the scope of the risks experienced by digital nomads and their travel insurance behavior. The study shows that digital nomads cannot escape from national regulations. They have to take out insurance in countries with low cost of living due to problems with the health system and security, and in some countries, it is due to country regulations. In practice, the study provides conclusions and recommendations for current and potential digital nomads, insurance companies and governments regarding the insurance behavior of digital nomads. In particular, the study concludes with recommendations for insurance companies in terms of insurance product development and the use of social policy tools for governments. Originality/value This study offers a perspective on the key factors underlying the travel insurance behavior of digital nomads.
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