Last week we spoke about the forecasted holiday trends for 2021 and the potential these opportunities bring to our destination and economy. Along with these new travel trends, this year comes with a fresh perspective on work-life-balance.
The experience of lockdown and working from home last year gave many of us the chance to discover that there are more ways to stay connected to our work and colleagues, than being physically in the same building. Some studies have even shown higher productivity from the new ‘working from home’ trend.
We think the Bundaberg region is the perfect location to work from the balcony of an oceanfront room or from a local café serving up delicious local produce and good coffee. And we’ve seen more and more visitors do just that, with one parent continuing to work from a holiday destination, while the rest of the family enjoys exploring.
With people starting to embrace working from anywhere, it’s important we are prepared to cater for these digital nomads, whether they’re here for just a couple days, or for a couple months.
Living in a digital age, where being online is important, offering free WiFi has become a point of difference for holiday destinations and something visitors are actively seeking out. When looking for accommodation, travelers are now considering connectivity as a significant deciding factor, over other factors such as proximity to shops, and even more so now that people are working ‘out-of-office’.
Other helpful things local businesses can implement to make nomadic workers stay in our region for longer include having the facility in a café where travelers can charge their laptops or setting up a table a little further from the action where they are able to make phone and video calls, even offering a downloadable meeting background with a gorgeous destination image and your business branding that they can access when they tap into your WiFi. Some accommodation places are also partnering with our local co-working space the Generator, to offer a workspace away from home, while booking in adventures for the rest of the family.
As the world re-thinks their work-life balance, or perhaps work-life integration, as well as wanting to experience new places and connect with family and friends, we too need to think about how we are offering up the right facilities to make the Bundaberg Region the destination of choice for the ‘working remotely’ holiday, to help our visitors find the balance.
Yours in tourism,
Katherine Reid, CEO
PS: If there are other things you would like to see in this column about tourism – let us know on our corporate Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bundabergtourism
