When we think of digital nomads, we perhaps have an image of a young, single person who is taking an extended gap year type experience to travel the world and support themselves by working online.
A recent survey from Fiverr and Lonely Planet dispels that myth. The survey reveals that the nomadic lifestyle is now no longer limited to single people with a decent disposable income, but also includes couples and people with families.
Flexibility and autonomy
The survey found that people were choosing the nomadic lifestyle both because it was increasingly being enabled by the rise in remote working but also because they want greater control, flexibility, and autonomy over their lives.
What’s more, these people are often working full-time, so it is not a case that traveling is the main activity with part-time work used to fund these travels. Instead, people are committed to their work but are using remote working opportunities to travel at the same time. Indeed, for about a quarter of respondents, their stay in each location would often be for an extended period rather than spending a few weeks or a month in each place before moving on.
“There has been a revolution in the way we work and where we work for millions of people around the world over recent years, and we can largely attribute this to the pandemic,” said Gali Arnon, Chief
Marketing Officer at Fiverr. “Now more than ever, Anywhere Workers are integrating life, work, and family into their day-to-day routine, and this new era has opened up opportunities for so many to live and work differently isn’t slowing down.”
What is perhaps telling is that nearly all of those surveyed believe that they will continue to work remotely and travel for at least another six months, with the overwhelming majority having jobs that support this lifestyle. These jobs tended to coalesce around roles in engineering, IT, consulting, and marketing.
The most important factor when choosing somewhere to base themselves was the cost of living, while employment opportunities for their partner and the ability for children to maintain their education were also important for those with families.
