1Digital nomadism (DN) is a rapidly growing phenomenon and mobile lifestyle based on the combination of remote work, international travel and residential multi-locality (Mancinelli, 2020; Mancinelli & Molz, 2023). Coined in the late 1990s, the term digital nomads was invented to indicate a new class of technology-savvy individuals that, liberated from conventional office spaces by increasingly portable devices, would have worked while travelling the globe (Makimoto & Manners, 1997). In the following years, the combination of technological advancements, evolving work practices and travel trends created the conditions for the emergence of DN (Nash et al., 2018; Schlagwein, 2018) and the bestseller book The 4-hour workweek (Ferriss, 2007) greatly contributed to popularise it (Bonneau & Aroles, 2021; McElroy, 2020; Schlagwein, 2018). Even if rapidly growing, DN was essentially a niche phenomenon in the late 2010s (Aroles et al., 2020; Cook, 2023).
2The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated DN (Almeida & Belezas, 2022; Cook, 2020, 2023; Ehn et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2020). Notably, many creative class workers tested this lifestyle during the pandemic and many more aspire to become digital nomads in the future (e.g. MBO, 2020, 2021, 2022). As highlighted by Wang and colleagues (2018), DN is not only an attractive lifestyle but also a growing market. New businesses, such as travel insurances, adapted coworking (CW) and coliving (CL) brands, emerged to respond to the specific needs of digital nomads, further contributing to the expansion of DN. Before the COVID-19 and even more since its outbreak, also public entities have launched various initiatives to attract digital nomads, escalating the global battle for talents. For instance, nation-states have introduced visas and attractive tax incentives specifically for this new category of desirable travellers and potential investors (Mancinelli & Germann Molz, 2023). Regional and local governments launched promotional campaigns, introduced soft-landing services to support their arrival, created virtual communities of nomads and facilitated the emergence of businesses catering to this market (Hannonen et al., 2023; Parreño-Castellano et al., 2022).
3Despite the growing number of public and private initiatives targeting digital nomads, studies on local impacts of DN are limited (Cook, 2023) and in part conflicting. On one side, as digital nomads often claim and some articles seem to confirm (e.g. Hall et al., 2019; Hannonen et al., 2023; Jiwasiddi et al., 2024), DN would be beneficial for local communities, mainly through knowledge exchange and support the local businesses. DN is also seen as an opportunity to relaunch the tourism sector after COVID-19 and during low tourist seasons (e.g. Floričić & Pavia, 2021). On the other side, some scholars highlighted potential negative effects of DN on host locations and nuanced the above-mentioned positive impacts. Notably, some noted that, even before the pandemic, the rapid influx of digital nomads in certain tourism locations has caused visible disruptions in the built environment (Green, 2020), as suggested by the emergence of new hybrid businesses such as CL spaces, CW spaces, cafes and restaurants with high speed internet and hotels with working areas. Instead of connecting locals with visitors, businesses tailored to digital nomads reinforce socio-economic inequalities (MacRae, 2016; Pettas & Avdikos, 2023). Critics also noted that digital nomads exacerbate transnational gentrification processes (MacRae, 2016; McElroy, 2020; Thompson, 2021) and often use public services without paying local taxes (e.g. Thompson, 2021), highlighting a mismatch between the perceived benefits and the actual impact on local communities. In the midst of the pandemic, as the influx of nomads rapidly rose in certain locations, the debate on the impacts of nomads has moved out of academic circles, becoming a heated public debate that culminated in street protests. For instance, activists in Mexico city and Lisbon blamed digital nomads for the sharp increase in rental and living costs (Ware & Mariwany, 2022). In this context, there is an urgent need to fill the gap on the local impacts of DN (e.g. Cook, 2023) from a destination perspective (Hannonen, 2024).
4Grounded in the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller & Urry, 2006), this article aims to explore how some Southern European cities are transforming to be more attractive to the hypermobile elite of digital nomads. More particularly, it investigates the spatial impacts of DN by focusing on some crucial components of its mobility infrastructure: businesses offering accommodation and work services for digital nomads, including CW and CL businesses and hybrids like hotels with CW areas and CW cafes. Based on empirical data, this article explores how service providers in Barcelona perceive digital nomads and the place of DN in their strategies, both in the physical and virtual spaces, by answering the following questions: What do digital nomads represent for these service providers? Are they just a (new type of) client among others, or a trigger of major transformations? How do service providers adapt to cater to digital nomads?
5Section 1 reviews the available literature on DN and its enabling infrastructure, with a particular focus on the emergence, still scarcely investigated, of new types of CW and CL spaces specifically for digital nomads and other remote workers. The following section presents the case study of Barcelona and the qualitative methods used to collect and analyse empirical data. The representations of digital nomads for service providers and the adaptation strategies of these services are detailed in sections 3 and 4. This article concludes with final reflections on how DN, through its mobility infrastructure, impacts cities. Moreover, it shows that, in parallel with exotic destinations in low-income countries, DN is developing also in major economic cities in Southern Europe.
6Scholars have proposed various typologies of digital nomads to reflect different characteristics and needs of this broad group of individuals. These typologies are based on various criteria, including their mobility level (Reichenberger, 2018), lifestyle values (Chevtaeva & Denizci-Guillet, 2021) and CW space usage (de Loryn, 2022). Notably, Cook (2023) categorises digital nomads by job status—freelance, business owners, and salaried—and introduces two further categories: experimental digital nomads, who are trying out this lifestyle, and armchair digital nomads, who aspire to become digital nomads in the future.
7Despite this diversity, digital nomads tend to have a relatively homogeneous demographic profile. Existing pre-COVID qualitative research describes them as white-collar professionals with strong passports that allow them to easily cross borders. Digital nomads are predominantly men and mainly Millennials (Thompson, 2021) but there are also older nomads, in their late forties and fifties, sometimes travelling with their families (e.g. Mancinelli, 2018). As they work remotely, their jobs are often linked to the tech industry but their professions might vary and include online teachers, graphic and web designers, computer programmers, writers, business owners, online psychologists, coaches, architects and photographers (de Loryn, 2022). Reflecting the diversity of professions, the average income of digital nomads varies considerably, with some earning a lot while others have increasingly precarious employment status in the gig economy (Thompson, 2018). Despite differences in income, digital nomads tend to visit places that offer a more affordable lifestyle, a practice known as geoarbitrage (e.g. Mancinelli, 2020). Even when digital nomads actually work in precarious conditions, they tend to have a higher purchasing power compared to local inhabitants of the places visited.
8The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated new ways of working and boosted remote work. For instance, the concept of coworkation (also spelled coworkcation), a compound word of work and vacation, has recently emerged in connection to the rise of DN (Aroles et al., 2020; Chevtaeva & Denizci-Guillet, 2021; Gourlay et al., 2021). Initially created to promote periods of working and living in stunning locations to digital nomads, marketing practitioners later re-framed this practice to attract all kinds of remote workers (Green, 2020; Matsushita, 2021; Voll et al., 2023). Some suggested that the pandemic has made the digital nomad lifestyle more accessible not only to more people but also to people with different demographics. In the era of mainstream remote work, what differentiates digital nomads from other types of remote workers and what are the practices lying behind the trending label of digital nomadism? The anthropologist Cook proposed an updated definition of the contemporary digital nomads as individuals who “visit at least three locations a year” (Cook, 2023, p. 4). Moreover, he identified six defining variables, such as their usage of CW spaces. The concept of home is another important variable because it often influences issues like taxes, travel destinations and frequencies of digital nomads. While the absence of a permanent home is sometimes seen as a sign of true digital nomadism, many nomads choose to own or rent one or more home bases for practical reasons, such as maintaining access to welfare state services, having a place to rest between journeys or generating passive income (Cook, 2023; de Loryn, 2022; Holleran, 2022; Mancinelli, 2018).
9The lifestyle of digital nomads depends on a specific infrastructure. This mobility infrastructure includes: physical spaces, such as flexible workplaces, adapted accommodations, leisure services and transport infrastructures (e.g. Lee et al., 2019); and virtual spaces, such as digital nomads’ websites, dedicated groups in social networks and targeted applications (e.g. Bozzi, 2020). Existing studies on digital nomads’ mobility infrastructure mainly analysed CW and CL spaces. While CW and CL spaces existed well before becoming associated with DN (e.g. Gandini, 2015; Bergan et al., 2023), digital nomads contributed to expand the demand for these businesses and to diversify their services (Lee et al., 2019). For digital nomads, the main benefits of these shared spaces are the access to a community of like-minded people and the support in developing a balance between work and leisure (Chevtaeva, 2021; Cook, 2020).
10CW spaces have increasingly become an attraction or amenity within destinations (Chevtaeva, 2021) or even destinations themselves (Merkel, 2022) for digital nomads. This is especially evident in remote locations, where the presence of coworkation spaces and their reputation significantly contribute to attract digital nomads to new unexplored destinations (Gourlay et al., 2021). For some (Bozzi, 2020; Gourlay et al., 2021; Hemsley et al., 2020), the emerging network of CW and CL hubs reveals the geographical expansion of DN. Empirical studies mainly explored the mobility infrastructure of digital nomads in Asia (Cook, 2020; Green, 2020; MacRae, 2016). However, recent articles expanded this exploration also to Southern and Eastern Europe (Gourlay et al., 2021; Jung & Buhr, 2022; Orel, 2019; Pettas & Avdikos, 2023). Overall, coworkation spaces in remote areas act as territorial intermediaries, connecting nomads with local territory and actors (Gourlay et al., 2021). At the same time, businesses adapting to nomads may have negative impacts on local communities. Notably in major cities like Athens, CW spaces adapting to digital nomads contribute to deterritorialize local coworkers by increasing access costs and exacerbating touristification processes (Pettas & Avdikos, 2023).
11As mentioned above, recent studies framed working cafes, CW and CL spaces as crucial components of a physical infrastructure that enables digital nomads to temporarily live and work at host locations. For instance, Jung and Buhr (2022) showed how a CW cafe in Lisbon provides a mooring for sustaining the mobile lifestyles of digital nomads, thus acting as a facilitator of their mobility practices. Similarly, Bergan and colleagues (2021) showed how CL services targeting digital nomads in New York City and San Francisco transform the traditional meaning of secure and long-term home into a spatial mooring that enables mobility. Shifting the focus from digital nomads to service providers, the article of Hannonen and colleagues (2023) is the first one to explore the emerging panorama of businesses catering to digital nomads in the case study location of Gran Canaria and to propose a classification of local businesses based on their adaptation strategies and interactions with digital nomads.
12This article critically explores the implications of emerging infrastructure for digital nomads through the lens of the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller & Urry, 2006). It examines how physical spaces like CW and CL spaces support the nomadic lifestyle and affect urban environments. The new mobilities paradigm suggests that mobilities are enabled by specific and immobile infrastructures that reshape places. Under this paradigm, digital nomads are seen as actors influencing urban landscapes by using CW and CL spaces. This study addresses critical questions regarding the role of digital nomads within these local services: What do digital nomads represent for service providers? How do service providers adapt their offerings to cater to digital nomads?
13Barcelona, Spain’s economic capital and popular tourism destination, has recently become known as a popular destination for digital nomads. According to the prestigious real estate agency Savills, Barcelona ranks among the top 10 destinations worldwide for executive digital nomads (Savills, 2022, 2023). As evidenced by earlier studies (Mancinelli, 2020; Matos & Ardévol, 2021; Thompson, 2019), digital nomads were already in Barcelona in the late 2010s. However, it is only after the COVID-19 pandemic the local press have reported their rapid rise (Gispert, 2023; Blanchar & Quesada Navarro, 2022) and impacts on rental market (German, 2023). This growing population has attracted the attention of various local stakeholders, including public authorities. Notably, Barcelona Tourism Board launched in 2021 Barcelona Workation, an initiative specifically developed for digital nomads and remote workers. In the same year, the city council and the local development agency launched Barcelona International Welcome Desk, a soft-landing service for international talents (including digital nomads) relocating to Barcelona. This is part of a broader strategy to attract, welcome and retain international talents.
14Existing studies have already explored various aspects of DN in Barcelona, focusing on the lifestyle of digital nomads (Mancinelli, 2020; Matos & Ardévol, 2021), framing them as highly-skilled and temporary migrants (López-Gay, 2023) linked to ongoing transnational gentrification processes in the city (Cocola-Gant & Lopez-Gay, 2020; Milano et al., 2023). However, many aspects of digital nomads in Barcelona, including their travel patterns and preferences at destination, have yet to be explored. This study aims to shed light on the mobility infrastructure of digital nomads in this city. Barcelona offers a great variety of workspaces for digital nomads and remote workers, with hundreds of CW spaces, cafes with wifi and hotels (Matos & Ardévol, 2021), and flexible accommodations, such as Airbnb apartments and CL spaces. Moreover, digital nomads in Barcelona can count also on virtual spaces (notably Facebook, WhatsApp and Meetup) to exchange information, for instance about lodging and leisure activities, but also to organise in-person events. Notably, the Barcelona Digital Nomads Meetup group has organised weekly events since January 2020 and four years later it has more than 5000 members.
15This article focuses on businesses targeting digital nomads in Barcelona in the accommodation and work sectors, thus excluding many other businesses targeting digital nomads, such as law firms and travel insurance companies. Relevant businesses were identified from various sources: business websites and social media channels; specialised online platforms; digital nomad travel blogs; and online/offline discussions with and among digital nomads.
16Eleven semi-structured interviews with local service providers were conducted between April and June 2023. Table 1 provides an overview of the businesses included in the study and of the interviewees. Managing a total of 73 spaces within Barcelona, these businesses included five local chains (managing from two to over 50 spaces), four small local businesses and two international businesses (one chain and one franchise). All CL businesses in this study were founded after 2020 and often arise as a new service offered by an existing business in the CW or tourism industries. The interviews were structured in six parts and their length lasted from 30 to 90 minutes.
17In addition to the interviews, the researcher collected secondary data related to the interviewed businesses, including relevant webpages, reports, presentations, and testimonies extracted from podcasts and local newspaper articles. Moreover, as a participatory observer, the researcher registered rich insights on the interactions between digital nomads and service providers during events, in workspaces and on social networks of digital nomads. Transcribed interviews, notes from observations and the above mentioned secondary data were thematically analysed using NVivo software, focusing on the themes "digital nomads," "clients," and "strategies."
N.
|
Type of services
|
Business context
|
Established (year)*
|
Size in Barcelona
|
Scale of business
|
Role of interviewees
|
1
|
Coworking
|
Coworking
|
before 2015
|
1001-5000 m2
|
Europe
|
Founder
|
2
|
Coworking
|
Coworking
|
before 2015
|
more than 5000 m2
|
Barcelona
|
Community manager
|
3
|
Coworking
|
Coworking
|
2015 - 2019
|
501-1000 m2
|
Barcelona
|
Founder
|
4
|
Coworking
|
Coworking
|
before 2015
|
1001-5000 m2
|
Barcelona
|
Community manager
|
5
|
Coworking
|
Working cafe
|
2015 - 2019
|
200 m2 or less
|
Barcelona
|
Founder
|
6
|
Coworking and long stay hotel
|
Hotel, student accommodation and coworking
|
2020 or after
|
15000 m2
|
Europe
|
Community manager
|
7
|
Coworking and coliving
|
Coworking, coliving and startup accelerator
|
2015 - 2019 (CW); 2020 or after (CL)
|
more than 5000 m2 (CW); more than 200 rooms (CL)
|
Spain (CW); Barcelona (CL)
|
Community and partnership manager
|
8
|
Coworking and coliving
|
Coliving and coworking
|
2020 or after
|
more than 5000 m2
|
Barcelona
|
Community manager
|
9
|
Coliving
|
Coliving and coworking
|
2020 or after
|
6-20 rooms
|
Barcelona
|
Founder
|
10
|
Coliving
|
Coliving and tourism accommodations
|
2020 or after
|
6-20 rooms
|
Barcelona
|
Community and partnership manager
|
11
|
Coliving
|
Coliving and social club
|
2020 or after
|
5 rooms or less
|
Barcelona
|
Founder
|
Table 1: Details about interviewees and their business
* If the business is also located elsewhere, it refers to the year when the business first established in Barcelona.
18This first section of results explores the representation of digital nomads for service providers, both in terms of how they define them and of their place in their business.
19Service providers offered various interpretations of what is a digital nomad. Views on digital nomads ranged considerably in relation to their work status, relation to home, economic status and preferred travel destinations. Firstly, some (such as business 1, 7, 9 and 10) characterised digital nomads primarily as freelancers, while others (business 2) described them as corporate remote workers or more generally as professionals combining remote work and travel (business 3). Secondly, opinions differed regarding the notion of home, with some asserting that digital nomads lack any kind of fixed home, while others suggested the possibility of having a home base. Thirdly, regarding their economic status, views ranged from considering digital nomads wealthier than expats to perceiving them as less affluent. Fourthly, perceptions of ideal destinations for digital nomads varied considerably, with some suggesting their preference to stay in "big cities", while others think that digital nomads prefer natural settings far from big cities or exotic locations in Asia. Despite these disparities, certain commonalities emerged. Digital nomads were predominantly described as foreigners, with rare instances of Spaniards working remotely for foreign companies. Moreover, interviewees tended to agree that the duration of their stay varies significantly, ranging from a few weeks to several months. Finally, they are perceived as individuals with higher purchasing power than local inhabitants.
20Overall, several interviewees shared a certain fuzziness in identifying digital nomad clients and thus could not provide a clear portrait of their digital nomad clients. Notably, the founder of business 1 declared: “I never know what [my clients] actually do […] and I cannot see if they are just spending some vacation in Barcelona or they are working and living in Barcelona for a couple of months. So I never know if they are really digital nomads.”
21Several interviewees reported that, while their clients generally do not present themselves as “digital nomads”, they can often deduce the nomadic identity of some customers by chatting with them. For the CW managers of business 4 and 6, clients renting a space for two months because “they will be in another country in the third month” are digital nomads. For the community manager at business 2, digital nomads are usually “from abroad so if they speak English, it is likely that they are nomads”. Interestingly, the CW cafe founder (business 5) noted that, even when the nomadic identity of a client is established, they anyway know less about them because they spend less time (few weeks or months) in their space compared to loyal clients with a fixed residence in Barcelona (that might use their CW space for several months or years).
22In line with the difficulties to identify digital nomads, most interviewees were unable to quantify their digital nomad clientele among their broader customer base (nor they have had the need to keep track of the volumes of digital nomads). Some interviewees mentioned that there is a lot of turnovers in their CW spaces, with new clients arriving every day. Only one interviewee could report the exact number of digital nomads at her CW when the interview was conducted: eight people, which represented around 10% of the overall clientele in May 2023. Another interviewee shared that his CW space has hosted a minimum of 50 digital nomad clients since its opening a few months earlier, a figure that represented around 10% of active users at the time of the interview.
23Overall, digital nomads seem to represent a minor customer segment for the majority of the CW services in the study. Despite this, founders and managers of some CW spaces (businesses 1 and 3) highlighted the significance of digital nomads during specific periods, such as August or December, when local workers in Barcelona are on holiday. Additionally, the founder of a CW cafe (business 5) emphasised the dependence of small family businesses like hers on digital nomads.
24As for CL and hybrid accommodation businesses, the relevance of digital nomads varies significantly. The CL businesses (9 and 11) occasionally host digital nomads but they primarily accommodated “newcomers” relocating to Barcelona from abroad, providing access to community and soft-landing services to establish a social network and familiarise with the city (before eventually moving to a more suitable accommodation). For the hybrid businesses 7 and 8, digital nomads are a sizable customer segment for their CL business but not for their CW. For business 10, they represent a major customer segment together with corporate remote workers doing “workations”. Finally, two businesses providing short-term accommodations for tourists and students rebranded in order to better attract remote workers looking for short- or medium-term accommodations (see section 4.5). While digital nomads and remote workers represent one among other customer segments for business 6, they are the main and increasingly exclusive target for business 10.
25Interestingly, accommodation businesses in this study often targeted a particular sub-category of digital nomads with higher budgets and slower travel patterns. Notably, the founder of a CL space created the neologism “entreprenomad” to illustrate his target and introduced a selection process to filter applicants (see also section 4.2). Travellers and location independent individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset (e.g. business owners, freelancers, and startup founders) represent the ideal candidates, while applications from digital nomads working remotely for a company are refused if they cannot demonstrate an "entrepreneurial mindset". With a minimum stay of two weeks, business 6 provides the most flexible accommodation offer but also the least affordable. Its studio apartments with kitchenettes are designed for digital nomad business owners and other affluent clients working in Barcelona for less than three months. Finally, another CL focused on "slowmads", meaning digital nomads who “travel slow”, i.e. change destination every three to twelve months.
26Digital nomads are considered a niche market that considerably developed during and especially after COVID-19 pandemic. According to interviewees, the number of digital nomads in Barcelona has significantly increased since the pandemic outbreak. Interviewees overwhelmingly considered DN as a growing trend and business opportunity. For instance, one of the interviewees (business 7) declared about her CW business “while today nomads don't represent a significant target group, this is changing. As Barcelona attracts more and more nomads, the company is thinking about doing something”.
27The second section of results delves into the strategies of service providers in Barcelona for attracting digital nomads and, more generally, remote workers. Six main categories of strategies are identified: flexible pricing models; community services; mobility services; hybrid spaces; visibility; and tailored collaborations. Table 2 at the end of this section provides an overview of the adaptation strategies adopted by service providers in Barcelona.
28Various interviewees noted that flexible pricing options are a prerequisite to meet the needs of different customers, and especially of those temporarily living in Barcelona. Businesses in this study have facilitated the access to their services by expanding their pricing options. For example, many CW businesses have progressively expanded their monthly subscriptions to include daily and weekly passes or even hourly passes. CW business 5 set itself apart as the first to introduce a pay-as-you-go pricing model in Barcelona in 2016. This pricing model consists in charging the clients only for the actual time spent at the CW and it was designed to attract specifically those who needed occasional access to a professional working environment, such as freelancers, digital nomads and other transient professionals. Subsequently, this CW business broadened its pricing option with hourly, daily, and weekly passes, providing some discount over the standard pay-as-you-go rate. Offering various pricing options allows CW spaces to cater to both occasional users and those who need more regular, but not full-time, access.
29In 2021, CW business 1 introduced a new pricing model based on hourly passes for different types of remote workers, including digital nomads, that often need flexible and punctual access to a professional working environment. According to the founder of this CW space, the hourly passes model has been a “total success”, essentially replacing the subscription model. In April 2023, 95 per cent of his customers were on hourly passes and only 5 per cent had subscribed for monthly or yearly plans. While this pricing option was uncommon in Barcelona at that time, many CW spaces (including more than half of the CW spaces in this study) facilitate flexible access to their facilities through workspace platforms like GetCroissant, Hotdesk, Tally Market and Hubble (see also section 4.6). These platforms operate as intermediaries between workspace providers and consumers, typically allowing users to work from various locations in major global cities based on their evolving needs. Users can browse available spaces, choose the desired location, and often access additional amenities and services offered by the spaces. GetCroissant, one of the most popular workspace platforms in Barcelona, is frequently suggested in social media channels of digital nomads in Barcelona to newcomers looking for workspaces because of its flexible and affordable plan and wide offer of spaces.
- 1 The Special Tourist Accommodation Plan (PEUAT) regulates short-term rentals in Barcelona. Barcelona (...)
- 2 Introduced in 1994 and last revised in 2023, the Urban Rental Law (LAU) regulates the rental market (...)
30As for CL spaces, most businesses offered one basic pricing model. Monthly rents generally included all expenses (such as utilities, internet and cleaning services) and prices varied based on size and type of accommodation (e.g. shared or private rooms) and extra amenities. Some businesses offered a more flexible and hybrid pricing model with discounts for long stays (more than two or three months) and one proposed additional reductions for yearly members. Overall, most CL businesses rented large apartments and subsequently sublet bedrooms to individual clients. Most of these CL apartments have a three-month minimum stay policy but generally allow shorter stays, especially in summer months. Despite this flexibility, all CL apartments rent rooms for 31 days or above, circumventing the requirement for a tourism licence mandatory for short-term rentals in Barcelona1. Compared to traditional long-term rentals2, which typically run for five years, these medium-term rental contracts are ideal for digital nomads and remote workers that generally stay in the city from a few weeks to several months. The legislative gap concerning medium-term rental apartments enables to legally rent bedrooms for periods between 32 days and 11 months at a free market price, also in areas of Barcelona where new tourism apartments are not allowed.
31Digital nomads seek a community of like-minded people wherever they travel (e.g. Thompson, 2021). Having understood this need, businesses adopted various measures to build a vibrant community, for instance by hiring a community manager, sharing information about community members and using communication platforms like Whatsapp or Slack to enhance interactions with and among members. Moreover, companies offered a wide range of professional events (like networking, talks, workshops, and afterwork drinks) and social activities (such as sports, film projections, language courses, and wine tasting). Overall, the quantity and types of social activities proposed by these businesses seem to go beyond what traditional CW and CL spaces propose. For instance, this aspect is particularly evident in CL business 11 that brand itself also as social club, and business 7 who propose several events every day, presenting community activities as its main differentiation points with competitors. The frequency of these events ranged from a few times per month up to multiple daily events. While most events and activities were open to all community members, including daily pass users and those on platforms like GetCroissant, some businesses developed specific events catering to particular client segments, including digital nomads. For instance, business 7 organised an online talk about digital nomad visas and hosted networking events of the local digital nomad community.
32As previously noted (e.g. Thompson, 2019), service providers commodify their communities to attract new clients. The importance of community has led various CL businesses to introduce a resident selection process. Out of six businesses providing accommodation services, three have introduced a selection process and a fourth planned to do it to filter out undesirable "party tourists." This process consists of two main steps: an initial online questionnaire about general information (including preferred check-in and check-out dates) and personal details (such as profession, age, nationality, and hobbies), followed by an interview. Some CL businesses offer curated experiences for specific profiles of clients. Notably, CL 8 and 11 focus on entrepreneurial-minded individuals, rejecting applications from salaried digital nomads and students. Overall, all CL businesses attracted mainly young professionals from abroad. In this respect, CL founder 9 explains that her clients are always from abroad because locals from Barcelona and Spain often don’t value the community aspects and thus perceive this kind of accommodation as expensive. Similarly, according to CL founder 11, CL spaces are not for everyone as some people, especially locals, might find them expensive if they do not value or need the community aspects and flexibility. Thus, Spaniards and international individuals moving to Barcelona don’t have the same needs and these CL spaces meet the specific needs of digital nomads linked to their multi-local residential living and community seeking lifestyle.
33Mobility services facilitate the arrival, temporary settlement, departure and sometime even the return of digital nomads. The analysed businesses provided three types of mobility services. First, soft-landing services aim to facilitate the arrival and settlement of clients relocating to Barcelona, helping newcomers to quickly feel comfortable, connected, and productive in their new environment. Soft-landing services might include administrative support related to visa and tax, but also practical information about living in Barcelona. For instance, businesses 7 and 10 provided detailed information about digital nomad visas on their website and established a partnership with a law firm to provide further assistance. However, soft-landing services provided by private business were more basic when compared to the public soft-landing services offered by Barcelona International Welcome, which include personalised support sessions.
34Second, most businesses in this study provided tourism services. Notably, the websites of these businesses have a blog section with rich insights on the historical, cultural and leisure aspects of certain neighbourhoods, the overall city or the surrounding areas. These blog articles also include content specifically tailored for digital nomads, with evocative titles like “A digital nomad guide to navigating [name of the district]” and “How to live as a digital nomad on [name of geographical area]”. Additional tourism services included the creation of city guides, the promotion of free walking tours and the organisation of personalised tours.
35Third, all businesses with multiple venues offered “travel agency services” (businesses 1, 4, 6, 7 and 10). Members of these businesses often have privileged access to working and accommodation facilities in different cities. For some companies, this service is relatively new or informal, while for others it is an additional service and a key advantage that is put forward in the website. For example, CW business 4 enables its customers to spend a week per month in one of its partners' CW spaces across the world. Business 6, an international chain implanted in tourist destinations, facilitates the mobility of their coworkers in Barcelona by offering a 15% reduction on accommodation options and free access to their CW spaces in other cities. CL businesses 10 organised some pop-up CL retreats in other Mediterranean countries. Moreover, CL and CW business 8 planned to open new locations in major global cities, such as Valencia, Miami and Bali, to facilitate the mobility of its community members. The multi-locality aspect of these businesses respond to the aspirations of digital nomads constantly looking for new “plug and play” destinations. By providing a global network of destinations, these businesses aim to reduce the hassles linked to relocations to new destinations, thus facilitating the lifestyle of digital nomads.
36In the post pandemic context of mainstream remote work, CW and CL businesses have undergone significant transformations to adapt to the changing ways of working, living and socialising. Particularly evident in accommodation services, these adaptations tended to provide more comfort and privacy of users while also creating ad-hoc spaces fostering social interactions. For instance, business 6 offers studio apartments with kitchenettes and several additional amenities like CW, gym, restaurant, terraces and swimming pools; business 8 provides private rooms with in-suite bathrooms and shared facilities like kitchen, CW, gym, and various relax areas; former hostel converted into a CL space, business 10 transformed one of the bedrooms into a flexible workspace, installed new bunk beds with curtains and more comfortable mattresses.
37Transformations also involved the creation of hybrid spaces, with dedicated working facilities in CL and non-working facilities in CW, and the integration of new technologies, for instance to reserve and access meeting rooms. For instance, CW business 1 seized the opportunity presented by the pandemic to entirely renovate its six-storey building. Notable enhancements included the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies for the introduction of hourly passes and the substantial increase in extra amenities for working, such as the installation of over twenty phone booths (a facility that became more and more requested since online meetings have considerably increased since COVID-19), and for non-working activities, such as relax areas with a coffee point at each floor and a bar at the ground floor with multi-functional spaces.
38This section explores how businesses in Barcelona have strategically leveraged their physical locations and enhanced their online presence to attract the growing community of digital nomads and remote workers. Especially since COVID-19, the number of digital nomads and remote workers doing workations has considerably increased in Barcelona. The rising demand for temporary homes and workspaces led to the adaptation of some existing businesses and the emergence of new businesses. For instance, businesses 10 partially reconverted during the pandemic, moving from a hostel for traditional tourists to a CL for remote workers and digital nomads. Initially seen as a strategy to survive in a period of crisis without tourists, this business gradually adapted to the increasing demand of longer stays combining remote work, leisure and a sense of community. Another example is provided by business 8, which chose Barcelona to open the inaugural location of its CL chain based on the city’s significant concentration of digital nomads, vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem and the founders’ origins rooted in the territory. Thus, by providing the necessary infrastructure, these businesses contribute to transform the city into an ideal destination for workations.
39While not directly linked to digital nomads, the specific location of these businesses within Barcelona is an important factor to understand their attractivity for this clientele. As illustrated in figure 1, these businesses are almost exclusively located in the city centre of Barcelona and are particularly concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Dreta de l’Eixample, Poblenou and Vila de Gracia. These neighbourhoods offer all amenities (such as restaurants, organic shops and in some cases also tourist and cultural attractions) within walking distance and easily accessible with public transport. As noted by several interviewees, digital nomads tend to choose workspaces at a walking distance from their home. For instance, interviewee 4 noted that her CW tended to attract many “travellers” (i.e. people working and living in the historical centre of Barcelona just for a few weeks or months) specifically because of its central location. The importance of central location is underscored also by the experience of business 8, a CL and CW chain that aimed to expand in decentralised areas of major cities. However, the first facility in Barcelona encountered two unforeseen challenges associated with its isolated location: the dissatisfaction of some colivers needing to make multiple daily trips to the city centre; and the struggles to attract external customers for the CW. In response, the business is contemplating opening a new CW space in the heart of Barcelona and developing future facilities in "less decentralised areas." As mentioned in section 4.1, the location of new accommodation services is also influenced by the local regulations. However, according to one interviewee, one hybrid business in the sample obtained the building permit from the city hall to build a new facility in the centre because it also offered a (CW) service for the local community.
Figure 1: Distribution of CW and CL spaces managed by the interviewed businesses in the neighborhoods of Barcelona. Dreta de l’Eixample (identified by the letter E in the map) is the neighbourhood with the highest number of spaces (17), followed by Poblenou (P) with 8 spaces and Vila de Gracia (G) with 7 spaces. Source: own elaboration.
- 3 In computer science jargon, these strategies are called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and they i (...)
40In addition to the physical location in central Barcelona, the online presence of these businesses plays a critical role in attracting digital nomads. Notably, most interviewees revealed that Google is the most common way in which clients find their service. Consequently, many have implemented various strategies to enhance their online visibility and ranking on search engines3, for instance by including relevant keywords in their website and by being endorsed by reputable websites. A detailed examination of these businesses' websites revealed diverse materials specifically tailored to digital nomads. Notably, blog articles offered valuable information for digital nomads, including insights on local amenities (see also tourism services in section 4.3), benefits of travelling slow and staying in CL spaces, testimonials from digital nomad members, advices on achieving work-life balance, and details on the Spanish digital nomad visa. Beside developing engaging content, some CL businesses have extended their promotional efforts to digital nomads’ social networks. For instance, businesses 7 and 11 used social media platforms to reach potential clients seeking temporary accommodation in Barcelona. Furthermore, GetCroissant and similar global platforms are also used by CW businesses to gain more visibility online and be part of a network of workspaces in major business cities. According to interviewee 2, the combination of a central location and the collaboration with workspace platforms like GetCroissant is a winning strategy that brings many new clients.
41Last but not least, the vision and mission of few of these companies are deeply intertwined with digital nomads, remote workers and entrepreneurs. For instance, one CW space describes itself as a meeting place between digital nomads and the local community; another company encourages individuals to adopt a digital nomad lifestyle and "live a fulfilling life by exploring the world and working remotely." Moreover, two established businesses rebranded to better appeal to an international clientele of remote workers, location-independent individuals and digital nomads.
42CW and CL service providers in Barcelona have established some collaborations, with both the public and private sectors, linked to the attraction of digital nomads and remote workers. Interactions with the public sector are mainly linked to Barcelona Workation, an initiative launched by Barcelona Tourism Board in 2021 (see section 2.1). Notably, five out of eleven businesses under investigation were officially part of this initiative in June 2023 and some of them offered a discount for new members. Despite this, interviewees appeared scarcely aware of this public initiative. Far from considering it a strategic collaboration, some noted that this collaboration has not brought any clients. None of the CL services were included in the directory for accommodations provided by the Barcelona Tourism Board. When asked, some interviewees tried to explain this with a lack of understanding of the public sector towards this new concept. In addition to the Barcelona Workation initiative, one interviewee mentioned also the events, activities and support offered by Barcelona International Welcome (see section 2.1) and added that the “city invested a lot” in attracting and retaining international talents. However, no formal collaboration emerged between the analysed businesses and Barcelona International Welcome.
43Collaborations with the private sectors specifically linked to digital nomads were also found. For instance, businesses 7 and 10 initiated partnerships with specialised immigration law firms in order to support their digital nomad clientele seeking to apply for the Spanish digital nomad visa. CL business 10 also offered special offers for CW spaces but also for restaurants, gyms, language courses, an organic shop in Barcelona and, as mentioned above, also for pop-up CL experiences in other destinations. In addition to local businesses, companies partnered with global platforms such as GetCroissant, granting the access to flexible workspaces, and Mapmelon, helping to identify CL services for digital nomads. In particular, almost half of the analysed CW had in place collaborations with GetCroissant and similar platforms. As one of the interviewees explained, these platforms usually take a 10 per cent commission for each platform customer. This collaboration is generally considered as advantageous for CW spaces, notably because it helps to fill available spots. However, it can also represent a loss for businesses, for instance when assiduous clients prefer to access the space through the app instead of committing to a plan at the CW.
44Only in a few cases, businesses collaborated directly with prominent members of the local digital nomad community. Notably, CW and CL business 7 hosted a few afterwork events of the weekly digital nomad meetup group at the rooftop of one of its CW spaces in Poblenou. This event was the occasion to show the CW spaces and to advertise the CL services with flyers and on the Whatsapp group of digital nomads in Barcelona. Moreover, another couple of CW services hosted small groups of digital nomads for free CW days. In this case, these events were seen by business owners as an opportunity to potentially gain new customers.
Strategy category
|
Specific strategies
|
Adopted by business
|
Flexible pricing models
|
Propose wide variety of pricing options
|
2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8
|
Propose hourly passes or are accessible through workspace platforms offering hourly passes
|
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8
|
Discounts for long stay and members
|
8
|
Flexible length of stays in accommodations
|
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11
|
Community services
|
Curation process of community members
|
8, 9 and 11
|
Organise weekly work-related activities, such as networking events, talks and professional growth
|
1, 3, 4, 6 and 7
|
Propose weekly activities linked to sport, leisure and personal growth
|
1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11
|
Mobility services
|
Soft-landing
|
9 and 11
|
Tourism information
|
e.g. 6 and 10
|
Travel agency
|
1, 4, 6, 7 and 10
|
Hybrid spaces
|
Provide a variety of working environments and facilities accommodating different working needs
|
e.g. 1, 3 and 6
|
Provide a variety of recreational facilities, such as ping-pong rooms, kitchens, serviced bars or terraces
|
e.g. 6, 7 and 8
|
Online and onsite visibility
|
Central location
|
e.g. 6
|
Online presence
|
e.g. 3 and 7
|
Network of locations
|
1, 4, 6 and 10
|
Content marketing
|
e.g. 3, 6, 7 and 10
|
Branding the business for travelling remote workers
|
3, 5, 6, 8 and 10
|
Tailored collaborations
|
Collaboration with the public initiatives supporting digital nomads at destination
|
2, 3, 4, 6 and 7
|
Collaboration with legal companies about the digital nomad visa
|
7 and 10
|
Collaboration with global platforms specifically targeting digital nomads and remote workers doing workations
|
10
|
Collaboration with members of local digital nomad community
|
7
|
Table 2: Adaptation strategies
45This final section presents three key findings on DN, urban services and local policies in Barcelona. It emphasises the impacts of DN on local businesses and discusses their broader implications for other Southern European cities.
46Firstly, digital nomads often represent a rapidly growing customer segment for service providers in Barcelona. Despite this, the term digital nomad holds diverse and sometimes contradictory meanings for service providers, varying from the stereotypical image of the digital nomad freelancers to salaried digital nomads or a combination of various types of remote workers. Most importantly, the actual identities and practices behind this term are secondary for service providers. This article pinpoints the importance of shifting the focus from identity of digital nomads to the practice of working remotely while travelling in order to have a more comprehensive and nuanced discussion over the local impacts of DN, remote work and workations. This shift is significant because a broad spectrum of professionals working remotely from a location other than their own, a friend’s or family home have similar infrastructural needs at destination and thus similar impacts. Digital nomads can also be considered as temporary residents, i.e. tourists, expats, non-resident students and other individuals relocating to a city but without the intention to settle there permanently (Cocola-Gant, 2023; López-Gay et al., 2021; Milano et al., 2023). According to Brollo and Celata (2022), this category of temporary residents is necessary to capture the combined negative effects of this growing exogenous population of quasi-tourists in world cities and coastal resorts.
47Secondly, businesses in this study have developed novel strategies for digital nomads and other temporary residents, blending elements of work, tourism, and migration. These strategies are designed to improve the overall experience of these individuals in Barcelona by specifically addressing their working, living and social needs. Adaptation strategies include flexible access to CW spaces with daily and hourly passes, short to medium-term accommodations, new tourism and mobility services, enhanced social interaction opportunities and curation of community members. While level of adaptation varies across these businesses, most businesses in the sample only partially adapted to DN and still cater to other clients. At the same time, new businesses emerged specifically targeting subgroups of digital nomads, such as corporate remote workers and business owners. Regardless of the level of adaptation, these businesses sell not only a bed and a desk but above all a community of like-minded people and try to influence their travel patterns in terms of next locations and duration of stay at destination. In line with existing literature (Cook, 2023), this indicates the rise of new types of CW spaces – as well as CL spaces – that cater to a broader spectrum of digital nomads, beyond the stereotypical freelancers.
48These adaptation strategies brought major changes in physical spaces of these businesses, for instance by increasing the hybridisation of work and leisure spaces. Moreover, the combined effects of CW, CL and other hybrid businesses targeting digital nomads go beyond the physical private space of these businesses and are increasingly visible in the built environment. As argued by ongoing research in Barcelona (López-Gay, 2023), these impacts are more pronounced in certain central neighbourhoods, where the concentration of these services is particularly marked (see also figure 1). In line with existing studies (Gourlay et al., 2021; Hannonen et al., 2023; Pettas & Avdikos, 2023), the analysed businesses in Barcelona significantly contribute to connecting digital nomads to the host location, acting as territorial intermediators. The case of Barcelona shows several similarities with the adaptations of CW spaces to digital nomads in Athens (Pettas & Avdikos, 2023), such as the introduction of more flexible pricing models and of new tourism services. In line with Pettas and Avdikos (2023), this study argues that businesses increasingly adapting to these mobile populations contribute to exacerbate structural problems of Barcelona, notably the lack of access to housing for local inhabitants.
49Moreover, this article argues that the impact of these adaptations extends beyond the gentrification of central districts, leading to a broader transformation of cities into service hubs for a mobile elite. In fact, these adaptations contribute to accelerating broader societal changes linked to the shared economy. This shift is marked by the redefinition of the traditional meanings of work, home, and holiday to accommodate the needs of an increasingly mobile elite (e.g. Bergan et al., 2021). After shared mobility services, work and accommodation are evolving into on-demand services mediated by global platforms and private companies. In this context, cities increasingly adapt to the needs and aspirations of a highly mobile elite of international, young, active, talented and tech savvy individuals.
50The third result relates to the interactions between private and public actors in Barcelona. Notably, this article highlighted how, by contouring local regulations on touristic apartments and a legislative deadlock on medium-term leases, private actors created a new accommodation offer for highly mobile individuals who stay for one or few months in Barcelona. This calls for an urgent need for local authorities to regulate the proliferation of medium-term rentals, such as those offered by Airbnb and CL businesses subletting apartment rooms. While recent academic articles have already linked DN to ongoing transnational gentrification processes in Barcelona (e.g. Cocola-Gant & Lopez-Gay, 2020), local public institutions seem scarcely aware of the negative impacts linked to the rising number of digital nomads and related services. Just like private actors, public local institutions opportunistically try to attract and retain these quasi-tourists and international talents through new initiatives. Notably, the tourist office tried to establish new collaborations with hotels, CW spaces and other cultural attractions to promote the development of workations in Barcelona. Even if attempts to collaborate failed, it is significant to highlight that both private and public entities have launched new services to welcome digital nomads in Barcelona.
51In conclusion, this article provides empirical data on the tangible effects of DN on urban services and, by building on recent studies, underscore the territorial implications of these adaptations. It argues that the expansion of urban services for digital nomads and other temporary residents not only exacerbates existing structural problems of many Southern European cities (e.g. housing crisis, gentrification and sociospatial polarisation) but also it propels broader societal shifts associated with the shared economy. The local impacts of DN extend beyond the gentrification of city centres, gradually reshaping cities into service hubs for a mobile elite.
52Effectively scrutinising ongoing transformations linked to DN represent a methodological and conceptual challenge for researchers. This explorative study has just grasped the surface of the physical and virtual transformations led by DN and workations. Notably, the emergence of a network of locations mediated by global platforms seems a particularly interesting aspect and still under researched. Moreover, the role of local public institutions in the development of DN and remote work requires further investigation. Finally, future research is needed to explore the role of DN and workations in the hybridisation of leisure spaces, like cafes and hotel lounges, into workspaces (and vice versa). Limits of this article include the rapidly evolving landscape of businesses catering to digital nomads. However, while strategies of private and public stakeholders evolve rapidly, the overall direction seems the same.