Destinations as office location
Destinations are changing their marketing strategy and try to attract tourists by offering coworking spaces. This new strategy is not only focusing to market a destination as vacation spot, but as the spot to build a temporary office. Difficult times bring change, innovation and also adaption. The purpose of tourism is for example to escape the everyday life or to travel for a business meeting. Yet, this pandemic limited both options and people were forced to adapt and be innovative.
Using COVID-19 to bring innovation to business travel: workation
Traveling to another city or country for a simple business meeting seems to be in the past. The pandemic brought the business industry forward in terms of digitalisation. Many companies and individuals have realised that it is not necessary to physically be together for every meeting. Several online tools allow meetings to be held with participants from various locations. For companies this means that employees can be part of a meeting in Amsterdam in the morning and spend their afternoon in another meeting in London, the possibilities are endless. Not only does this allow for a more flexible schedule, but also saves a lot of travel costs for companies.
Remote working is the way forward
Next to more meetings being held online, also remote working and working from home seems to be the new normal. It is questionable if all people will return to the office once rules and regulations allow it. We have learned to work from home and to communicate with our colleagues virtually. But we have also adapted to the situation and not everyone is looking forward to return to the office full time.
Digital nomads: the new normal?
Taking into account the possibilities to have online meetings and being able to work remotely, the possibilities for destinations are changing. Many jobs nowadays only require a stable internet connection which leads to many opportunities in terms of office spaces. Instead of travelling to Amsterdam for a day for a business meeting, why not go for a month or even longer? Coworking spaces are the future and even a hotel room could become an office for a while. However, this lifestyle is not new. The term digital nomads has been around since 1964 and due to the adaption of this challenging times the number of digital nomads is increasing. What is new is the way destinations and organisations understand, support and market remote working.
Work from everywhere drives a new way of business travel
A new office location every month can become the new normal of business travel. The tourism industry is already adapting to this form of business travel and creates possibilities for coworking spaces or hotel rooms as office. Destinations can use this to market themselves in a new way and to attract a new group of tourists. This new way of travelling for work brings many opportunities but also challenges to destinations.
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