With remote working on the rise, Jenny Southan predicts that co-working holidays will become the norm next year.
ADVERTISEMENT**“As many more people shift to remote working and setting up their own businesses, spending a month or two abroad to work on projects and explore will replace weekend city breaks and two-week ‘fly and flops’. It will also help lower people’s overall carbon footprint as they won’t jet around so often.”
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This was a quote from the Euronews report 'Travel After 2020', produced in association with my travel trend forecasting company Globetrender.
In the report, we identified the new trend of 'co-working camps' emerging.
These are being set up by entrepreneurs who see a gap in the market for inspiring places to work abroad as a digital nomad. Hotel lobbies don’t cut it and wifi rarely reaches to the beach but now all that is changing.
Where can you take part in a co-working camp?
Bali, Desa Potato Head
The shore-side Desa Potato Head in Bali is a great example. Pitched as a “sustainable creative campus”, it combines a new hotel (called Desa Potato Head Studios) with a farm-to-table restaurant, work hubs, beachfront pool, music studio, exhibition space, amphitheatre and events programme. The idea is for entrepreneurs and remote workers to be able to enjoy a longer-term stay in a beautiful location, while meeting new people and being productive.
Mexico, Ethos Remote Habitat
Launched in autumn 2020, Ethos Remote Habitat is also propelling the Co-Working Camps trend. With rates starting from US$1,450/€1,223 a week, digital nomads can stay in an exotic location such as Tulum in Mexico for up to a month as part of a collective. Accommodation, communal workspaces, fitness classes, meals and wifi (of course) are all included.
“Unlike just renting your own Airbnb or staying in a hotel, with us, you get to live in a community alongside inspiring individuals and revitalise your mind and body through nourishing and organic food, transformational workshops, group activities and learning immersions," explains Janko Milunovic, CEO and co-founder of Ethos Remote Habitat.
UK, USA, & Japan, Roam
Meanwhile, Roam calls itself an “international network of colliding spaces”. With locations in Bali, London, Miami, San Francisco and Tokyo, it invites like-minded digital nomads to live and work together as a community.
Latin America, Selina
Showing that this trend is gaining traction, trendy work-surf hotel group Selina recently acquired Remote Year, a company that organises “work from anywhere” trips for members.
Selina sells subscription-based travel packages to its 76 hotels throughout Latin America, the US and Europe. Guests pay per night or for membership, which includes accommodation, co-working space, daily wellness activities, weekly laundry, and discounts on food and drink.
Its Nomad Passport starts from US$360 and includes a 30-night prepaid stay that can be used in a four-month window, while Selina’s CoLive is a month-by-month rental option, up to four months, starting at US$300.
As travel bans gradually lift and countries open up, we will see a shift to more “mindful” travel – and Co-Working Camps will be part of this. Hopefully, people will have learnt that travel is a privilege, not a right, and that taking fewer trips in a year – and staying longer – is much kinder to the environment. It also gives the opportunity to really immerse yourself in a destination and not just be an outsider passing through.
Jenny Southan is editor and founder of travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender
