Digital nomadism and the tourism industry labor markets

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a vision for the future identifying how digital nomadism affects the labor markets in the tourism industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative research method was used. The research data were collected using a semistructured interview form developed by the researcher. The sample consists of twenty people working in the tourism industry as tour guides, travel agency owners, accommodation sector employees and professional managers. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data.

Findings

It was found that employees in the tourism industry are familiar with digital nomadism, interact with employees working as digital nomads and may prefer the digital nomad way of working, while employees in the accommodation sector cannot work as digital nomads due to the nature of their work. It is shown that digital nomadism can be applied to tour guides and travel agency owners.

Research limitations/implications

The data was collected from employees of the accommodation sector, travel agencies, tour guides and employees of the Turkish tourism labor market. It is recommended that the tourism labor markets adapt to the digitalized world and adjust their working models in this context.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies on the impact of digital nomadism on the tourism labor markets.

Citation

Arisoy, B. (2024), "Digital nomadism and the tourism industry labor markets", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-03-2024-0062