While digital nomadism might seem like a recent trend, and it is, it was actually anticipated as far back as 1997, when emerging futuristic technologies promised to break the heavy chains that tied workers to their desks from 9 to 5.
In its early stages, digital nomads were mostly associated with men from developed countries working in the tech industry. However, this label no longer fits the nearly 40 million people who roam the world, while staying connected to their clients and families through Wi-Fi.
“When we think about our parents, it was about getting into a job, getting that 401k and going up the corporate ladder,” says Evita Robinson, CEO of the NOMADNESS Travel Tribe. “We’re really kind of blowing that ideology up in many ways because we aren’t waiting to retire to travel and see the world.”
The 2019 pandemic became the ultimate game-changer, forcing companies around the world to transition their office employees into remote workers.
While this shift was initially meant to be temporary, many employees never returned to the office. For some, it was because their companies discovered that remote work could be just as viable and productive, while for others, the substantial cost savings convinced employers of its advantages.
According to a 2023 analysis by Moody’s on the commercial real estate market, over 20% of corporate office spaces remain vacant, as workers no longer require a physical office. This would explain the surge in digital nomadism.
Other reports by the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Washington Post have highlighted how restaurants and other food venues in business districts have struggled to survive as remote work became common, leading to a sharp decline in lunchtime traffic.
According to the latest MBO Partner’s Digital Nomads Report, this demographic has grown by a staggering 131% since the onset of the pandemic.
The challenge seems to be that this sudden influx of digital nomads is overwhelming the rather limited number of destinations they choose to travel to.
For instance, they tend to concentrate in just three or four cities in countries like Spain, Greece, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Portugal and, of course, Bali—which, for many, it’s seen as an independent country that has nothing to do with Indonesia.
Once told that they would bring prosperity to these destinations, now they are increasingly blamed for creating misery.
According to multiple reports, digital nomads have significantly changed the economic dynamics of the so-called “digital nomads hotspots,” driving up rental prices, increasing the cost of food and forcing locals to move away from their own cities to nearby towns.
Recent data reveals an even more troubling trend: locals are being pushed out of these towns once again, as digital nomads have also begun to “colonize” these areas.
At the same time, countries like Spain and Italy are also facing massive depopulation at rates never seen before.
As a result, local governments in destinations such as Extremadura, Asturias, Aragón, Rubí (Catalonia), Galicia, Andalusia and Tuscany (Italy) are seeing digital nomads and remote workers as an opportunity to repopulate their communities.
To streamline the arrival of these new settlers—now increasingly made up of families with young children and couples from multiple nationalities and budget ranges—over 60 countries have introduced visas to cater to these people.
Provided that they don’t -entirely- work for Spanish or Portuguese companies, these countries offer easy-to-obtain visas to help them settle in their territories.
Other major players luring digital nomads with special visas include Japan and the UAE, which hope to boost their economies with the spending power of these new arrivals.
Bottom Line
The growing backlash from local communities indicates that digital nomadism requires some regulation before residents begin pushing to ban digital nomads from their beloved hotspots.
People have “romanticized the lifestyle they can get from it, so they forget that they’re coming into somebody else’s community, and they also need to think about how they can give back,” concludes Robinson.