Juan Manuel PARREÑO CASTELLANO, Geography Department, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Josefina DOMÍNGUEZ-MUJICA, Geography Department, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Digital nomads establish a geography entangled in specific tourism locations. In these destinations they normally overlap with sensu stricto tourists, retirement migrants and second homeowners, demonstrating the need to evaluate the potential of these mobile people for the tourism industry. Their selection on certain tourism locations is guided by their need to satisfy hobbies like surfing, hiking, or skiing and their main concerns are related to the availability of short-term leasing, normally selecting co-living spaces or apartments from the Airbnb lists. They also search for spaces where they could improve their work productivity (public libraries, cafes, shared offices, and co-working spaces), and where they can find a “community” or a “digital nomads’ hub”. Other important factors influencing their choice of places are the speed in the Internet connection, the cost of living and the presence of a community of like-minded as mentioned. Consequently, researchers have begun to recognize the value of places in the digital nomads’ lifestyle election; however, a geographical analysis has not yet been carried out on these destinations and on the specific measures and policies developed on different places to attract the arrival of digital nomads.
The research proposed focus on the Canary Islands (Spain) as an emergent destination for digital nomads. A summary of the geographical factors favouring the arrival of these mobile people is accompanied by a deep revision of the measures carried out by local institutions and media (meetings, forums, propaganda, etc.) as well as by entrepreneurs in this type of business. All of them are contributing to promote and diversify the Canary Islands’ tourism specialization.
Mots clés : Digital Nomads|Canary Islands|Tourism|Local Institutions Policies|Tourist Agents
A102891JP