By Imesh Ranasinghe The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the world to a new era where things have been forced to change to suit the “new normal”. Before Covid struck, working from home was something many corporations and government agencies thought would not be as productive as working from offices. A study involving 16,000 workers by Stanford University in the US showed that working from home has increased productivity by 13% over a period of nine months, with 50% work satisfaction and attrition rates. This increase in performance was due to more calls per minute attributed to a quieter, more convenient working environment and working more minutes per shift due to fewer breaks and sick days. However, the global tourism sector, one of the hardest-hit industries, decided to introduce a digital nomad visa as a solution to get the tourism industry going through the pandemic. Over the past 12 months, several countries in the world, such as Mauritius, Iceland, Croatia, and Malta, introduced remote work and digital nomad visas to attract tourists while giving them the opportunity and facilities to work remotely from their respective countries. What is a digital nomad visa? The term “digital nomads” dates back to around 1997. The book Digital Nomad mentions that technology would enable people to work from anywhere in the world. Before the dawn of the pandemic, there were freelancers who experimented with this idea. But now, people with regular jobs too are looking to travel and work from a destination of their choice. While this trend is slowly but steadily catching on, the tourism industry across the world has started to think in terms of what digital nomads are looking for. They are customising their products accordingly, so that they can pave the way for recovery. Although the term “remote worker” has become increasingly common over the last year, it should be noted that it isn’t perfectly synonymous with being a digital nomad. All digital nomads are, by necessity, remote workers. Yet, the latter term can also apply to those who simply operate from their permanent residence instead of an office. Though laws differ, entering a country as a tourist generally doesn’t permit the traveller to work while living there. A digital nomad visa is a document or programme that gives someone the legal right to work remotely while residing away from their country of permanent residence. The phrase “digital nomad visa” often isn’t used by governments that issue them, with most regions giving their programmes a unique name, such as the Global Citizen Concierge Programme by the Cayman Islands, or using more general terms like “residence permit”. Although these visas may not be targeted explicitly towards digital nomads, if users fit the description, then it still makes sense to use the term for them. Countries that have embraced the digital nomad concept include Georgia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Dominica, the Bahamas, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Iceland, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Dubai, Mauritius, Mexico, Cape Verde, Seychelles, and Taiwan. Out of these countries, Estonia was the world’s first country to introduce the digital nomad visa in July 2020, which allowed tourists to work for 12 months, hoping that 2,000 people might take advantage of the new scheme. During the pandemic, many “conventional” workers had already begun to move towards digitally nomadic setups. From Sweden to the US, workers have flocked to Wi-Fi-equipped cottages and cabins to work remotely for lockdown-friendly, manager-approved staycations. “Quarantine apartments” and “social distancing retreats” lured remote workers from miles away seeking more space for a few weeks, or even a few months. In the first quarter of 2021, Airbnb reported that the amount of long-term stays (at least 28 nights) nearly doubled Year-on-Year (YoY). How have economies benefited from digital nomads? On average, digital nomads are economically stable, and you can ensure this through your visa requirements. Tech Radar estimates the average annual earnings of nomads between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000. This can be an effective way to bolster the economy, especially if reduced tourism revenue has led to a loss of income. There are over 35,000,000 digital nomads across the globe of varied nationalities, with a global economic value of $ 787 billion per year, calculated as the aggregate of digital nomad spending annually. If the global digital nomad community were a country, it would rank 41st by population size, just after Canada (37,742,154) and Morocco (36,910,560); if the global digital nomad community were a country, it would be the 38th most prosperous country based on gross national income per capita, ranking just after Portugal ($ 23,200 average annual income per person) and Saudi Arabia ($ 22,840 average annual income per person). Also, this particular sector offers long-term visitors compared to tourism. Quarantine periods as well as seasonal variations are less likely to impact their movement or the popularity of the country or location as a destination. Remote workers’ motivations for their stay will be different from the average tourist. In October 2020, the Dubai Government launched its virtual working programme, an initiative that gives foreign professionals the opportunity to move to the emirate and continue to work remotely in their current jobs. The one-year programme, launched after Dubai reopened its borders to international tourists in July last year, is designed to attract professionals, entrepreneurs, and those working in start-ups. Given its strong ICT infrastructure and healthy start-up scene, Dubai has been seen as an increasingly attractive option for digital nomads in recent years, with officials marketing the emirate as a place where people can live and work by the beach. As a further incentive, in January, officials began offering free vaccines to those on the programme. Another emerging market that has become an increasingly attractive proposition for digital nomads during the pandemic is Mexico. A number of remote workers – particularly from the US and Canada – relocated to the country over the course of 2020. While Mexico, the US, and Canada agreed in January to restrict non-essential travel between the countries as a result of a spike in infections, Mexico’s more liberal approach towards its border throughout 2020 has contrasted with many other countries in the region. For example, Colombia and Peru kept their borders shut for much of last year, and Trinidad and Tobago is unlikely to reopen its borders in the foreseeable future. On top of this, the ability of US citizens to acquire a six-month visa on arrival constitutes a significant incentive for digital nomads, alongside the flexibility of the country’s temporary resident visa, which allows foreigners to stay between 180 days and four years. This has meant that some locations in Mexico, such as Tulum on the Caribbean coast, have been particularly busy as a result of the increase in foreign workers. In a sign that many expect this boost to be more than temporary, in February last year, hotel operator Selina – which specialises in accommodation for digital nomads – announced that it was looking to expand its offerings in Mexico. The company said it would invest $ 150 million over a two-year period, increasing its number of hotel and hostel beds from around 2,300 to 10,000. Following the collapse of global tourism as a result of Covid-19, a number of high-income Caribbean nations too turned towards incentivising such immigration as a way of offsetting the economic fallout of the virus. In July 2020, Barbados launched its Welcome Stamp programme. Within 48 hours of submitting a successful application and paying the $ 2,000 application fee, eligible remote workers will be able to live in the country for one year. This was followed by the launch of the Work From Anguilla programme in August, which similarly offers visas to remote workers for up to one year, and the two-year Antigua and Barbuda digital residence visa that was unveiled in November. Digital nomads in Sri Lanka In June 2021, French travel and tourism operator Club Med ranked Sri Lanka as the second-best destination for digital nomads in 2021, after Thailand. This pushed the Government to come up with a digital nomad programme which received cabinet approval in July 2021. The proposal by Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga was to launch a promotional programme by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in a bid to attract digital tourists to the country and to introduce a long-term visa category for digital tourists. They identified the availability of high-speed internet connections for communication, long-term visas, affordable accommodation, and tax exemptions for earnings, among others, as the main factors needed to attract them. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Director General Dhammika Wijayasinghe said that the digital nomad visa would be introduced in Sri Lanka by mid-October this year. She said the final steps of the programme are currently being completed by the Department of Immigration and Emigration. According to her, the programme will look to attract working professionals, ranging from medium to high-end tourists with permanent jobs in a foreign country that could be done remotely. Even though Sri Lanka is a famous tourist destination, statistics state that the majority of tourists visiting Sri Lanka are backpackers with a weekly budget under $ 500. Reasons for not attracting high-end tourists include the limited number of direct flights connecting Sri Lanka with the countries that can potentially act as the main source markets of high-end tourists. The most popular way for flying into Sri Lanka either from Europe or America is connecting via Qatar or the UAE, which results in longer travel. Also, the lack of proper road facilities to reach destinations within the country in a short period of time and the scarcity of luxury villas and five-star accommodation are also other reasons. Wijayasinghe said that initially a visa for one year would be issued to people who are eligible for the digital nomad programme. When applying for a nomad visa, she said, a special security clearance should be obtained from individuals from Sri Lankan embassies in their respective countries, apart from the application for the visa. Further, she said that other things required from an individual include proof of a permanent job and bank statements to prove their income. Conclusion Financial downturns have historically been inflection points of workforce changes. Continued improvements in mobile and cloud computing technologies along with greater acceptance for the trend can only lead to greater levels of remote working. Digital nomadism has shifted from being an alternative lifestyle challenging the status quo to becoming much more mainstream. Whether the trend will continue to accelerate post-Covid is still unclear, however, and data is scarce. All companies should know that this new way of working holds both potential risks and rewards. Further, this has the largest remote workforce in our history. This is a very real opportunity for island nations such as Sri Lanka, which are only going to continue growing as returning to offices post Covid would not be implemented on a full scale due to the results remote working has shown.