The new digital nomad tourism

23-01-2023 | News

With the growing diffusion of smart working - also thanks to the acceleration received from the forced lockdowns of Covid which constituted a sort of dress rehearsal - a new skill is emerging which some call "digital nomadism": the ability, that is, to work, and for a long time, thanks to digital tools in places other than the office.

by Andrea Granelli

The digital nomad deliberately chooses not to be in the office, favoring more comfortable, beautiful and stimulating places. Obviously some trades - for example software development or coaching - are particularly suitable, but this operating method is becoming natural in many other professions and roles and the number of people who are opting for this working method is growing significantly. 

In hindsight, this opportunity for digital nomadism is increasingly dependent on the growing mastery and culture of digital than by the type of profession. In fact, there are already many cases of managers and entrepreneurs who manage to carry out their work – and effectively – even away from the office. 

Ebuyer has recently identified the most suitable countries to host digital nomadism. And it did so with an exhaustive market research that used 5 criteria to create a list of the best countries in Europe for digital nomads: Happiness Score, rainy days, cost of living, Social Media Sentiments on smart working and quality of the Internet connection.

Two parameters, in particular, require some explanation. L'Happiness Score is a ranking of happiness measured over a three-year period. The Social Media Sentiments on smart working, on the other hand, it measures the percentage of posts from each country that were positive about "working from home" and therefore the level of positive sentiment of the host population towards smart working.

The three countries most ready to host the phenomenon of digital nomadism are Holland, Norway is Malta, while Italy – despite having even a few rainy days compared to the Nordic countries – unfortunately remains in 13th place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Holland, one of Europe's most touristic and technology-oriented countries, tops the list. He is also third in theHappiness Score and boasts excellent widespread quality of Internet connections. Furthermore, in Holland, smart working has recently become a workers' right, demonstrating a great open-mindedness of the country on the subject. 

But perhaps, in perspective, one should add to this research a additional selection parameter: the genius loci, namely the ability of a place to be welcoming and above all inspiring, able to relax but also to stimulate and influence. The beauty and diversity of our country - known throughout the world - is at the basis of all this. The seventeenth-nineteenth century Grand Tour was a long period in the history of our country in which the creative class moved to Italy not only because they were attracted by the beauty or by the curiosity of seeing the sources of classical culture - Italy Land of the Classic – but because the variety of landscapes, combined with an incessant dialogue between culture and nature, was extraordinarily inspiring.

This formula is still valid today and digital has made it possible in a systematic way. In fact, the most creative component of digital nomads doesn't so much want to work in places other than the office for logistical reasons, but looks for places where it is possible to work better and feel better, places that do not just host but stimulate ideas and positive emotions, territories characterized, therefore, by what the Latins called the genius of the place.

And more and more frequently these destinations are the most coveted holiday spots, but chosen in seasons in which human pressure is reduced and prices become more reasonable; when the same places are reconciled with the inhabitants returning to allow a normal life in harmony with the territory.

This wave of digital nomadism can then become a very interesting opportunity that reads with a different key the need to extend the tourist period that many beautiful holiday destinations need. So not so much de-seasonalize but rather to extend these territories to digital nomads in periods that complement and complement the high tourist season.

Andrea Granelli is president of Kanso.

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