3 Ways That Remote Working has Revolutionised the Travel Industry

October 17, 2021|Blog

e-PA: Just the Facts… no frills, no fluff, just your one-stop shop of business FACTS

Our latest ‘Industry Focus’ blog/article entry looked at the ways in which the travel, tourism and hospitality industries are recovering, post-pandemic, and highlighted the rise of the ‘remote workplace’. To continue with that theme here are three reasons why hotels, airlines, travel agencies and local tourism councils are adapting to meet the rising popularity of virtual jobs:

Extended Trips, Without Paid Time Off

From digital nomadism to ‘workations’, the ability to continue working while travelling has changed our itineraries and our vocabularies. Without the constraint of limited days of paid time off, workers can stay at a destination much longer than traditionally expected with just a few resources like coworking spaces and short-term housing options. (A fact that Nomad City has used to transform a single-week event into a local ecosystem of remote work on their isolated island of Gran Canaria, Spain.) This also means that the retirement age is extending later into careers, because why quit to travel when you can start doing both right now? So, whether travellers are 20 or 70, tourist destinations can expect more familiar faces instead of passers-by.

Corporate Incentives To Leave The Office

Wait a second, my company will pay for me to go on vacation? Well, in some circumstances, yes. Nomadic travel programs like Remote Year have enterprise models in which employers can offer participation as an employment benefit to help prevent burnout and access virtual skill training. What’s in it for the employer? Higher performance rates, stronger employee retention, fewer cases of burnout, international market research, and saturated business development. By partnering with nomadic travel programs, industry brands can capitalise on motivating employees to expand their office, not leave it behind.

Networking Outside Of Conferences

Group travel used to only be about combating loneliness and navigating foreign cultures with the strength of a pack, but now it can be a strategic career move. By integrating intensive career development content into an exotic travel itinerary, professionals gain access to unparalleled (and unforgettable) opportunities to generate leads or build culture as a team. Lifestyle brand, Unsettled, recently acquired digital nomad platform, Wanderbrief, for exactly this purpose—to blend corporate offsite experiences with the nomadic freedom of remote work. It shouldn’t be surprising if other travel experiences also follow suit and we start seeing as many skill workshops as spa retreats advertised at a destination.

Virtual workspaces are not only changing how we work, but they are also changing how we play too. Now the question is, how will the brands that we look to inspire our globe-trotting respond to this market shift?