Mapping the journey of the CoLiving experience of digital nomads, using verbal and visual narratives

ABSTRACT

CoLiving involves facilities that combine work and life experiences, which challenge the traditional concept of home. This paper aims to map the journey of the CoLiving experience of digital nomads. The paper adopts a qualitative approach, combining content analysis of in-depth interviews with interpretation of the visual narratives of photos taken by 13 participants, who were recruited in Selina CoLive hotels. The study assessed: (RQ1) the most important information sources and communication channels that contribute to increase the awareness of CoLiving operators and destinations (awareness stage); (RQ2) the major motivators and trigger events that drive people to adopt a digital nomadism lifestyle (consideration stage); (RQ3) the selection criteria that underpin the decision to choose specific destinations and CoLiving spaces and the minimum requisites in terms of living, working and social needs (planning stage); (RQ4) the positive touchpoints that generate unique memorable emotions, which foster satisfaction and the negative ones that provoke dissatisfaction (experience stage); (RQ5) the sense of community and sense of place, resulting from the transformational experience of CoLiving are usually shared in social media, thereby generating electronic word-of-mouth (advocacy stage).

KEYWORDS:

• Digital nomads
• CoLiving
• customer experience journey
• visual narratives
• Selina CoLive

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.jll.pt/pt/estudos-e-tendencias/estudos-de-mercado/portugal-CoLiving-follow-the-trend-2019

2 https://hostelgeeks.com/selina-coworking-CoLiving/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported through the Multiannual Funding of the Landscape, Heritage and Territory Laboratory (Lab2PT), Ref. UID/04509/2020, financed by national funds (PIDDAC) through the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - Portuguese National Funding Agency for Research and Technology.