Digital Nomads as Travellers in Europe

This research-oriented thesis aims to identify digital nomads as a traveller segment with a focus on Europe as their destination. Understanding their travelling habits, preferences and behaviours can help tourism and hospitality industry stakeholders to get more familiar with this customer segment and allow them to use the insights to better cater to the needs of digital nomads’. Digital nomads are defined as people that use technology in order to work remotely and achieve location independence that allows them keep working no matter where they live or travel to. While the initial inspiration may have come from Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4 Hour Workweek, the digital nomad phenomenon has gained momentum from the rise of social media and the COVID-19 pandemic in the past couple of years. The research was conducted as a quantitative online survey posted on Facebook groups, LinkedIn and sent directly to digital nomads on Instagram. The survey covered topics such as digital nomad demographics, accommodation, transportation, spending habits, destination choices and sustainability. With two extensions to the original timeline due to difficulties with approval time of Facebook group posts and low response rates, the survey ended up being open for participation 12.11.-23.11.2022. It was closed after 23 responses. The main findings indicate that most digital nomads have started working remotely in the last four years, likely continuing to work remotely after making the transition due to the restrictions during the pandemic. They stay in private apartments most of the time and appreciate possibilities to cook meals themselves and have flexible cancellation and change policies. Digital nomads take short trips of up to two weeks and longer trips of one to two months whilst changing cities a few times before changing the country. Their most frequent expenses are groceries, food and beverage services and public transportation. Digital nomads are culturally aware and like to blend in the local setting, but they are not as proactively educated on the impacts of their travels on the local community and environment. Based on the gathered data, a digital nomad customer avatar was created for a 29-year-old American woman who works fully remotely as a consulting freelancer in creative services and plans to be a digital nomad permanently. In order to best market their products to digital nomads, businesses should highlight proximity to tourist attractions, cafés and restaurants, flexible change and cancellation policies, privacy of their rooms and keep their website and social media frequently updated. Collaborations with digital nomads and highly visible reviews on websites and social media are great ways to attract other digital nomads and build trust since they listen to the recommendations and experiences of their peers. On destination level, reliable internet connection, smooth public transportation and working together to make services easily available are crucial