Whatever you call it: workcation, extended bleisure travel, flex work, remote working, digital nomad, work-life balance or a phrase I might have just invented “travel working’ – it’s a growing phenomenon among both millennials and baby boomers who want to work and travel so they can live their best life.

This inspirational lifestyle embodies the need to get out and experience culture, history and the sights on your must-do list while making money to sustain a preferred lifestyle – all while young enough to enjoy or before health declines. Work habits of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s involved the 9 to 5 norm of commuting an hour or more to work, owning a large house, driving the best new cars and receiving 2 or 3 weeks’ vacation a year. These norms are becoming things-of-the-past as remote working becomes feasible.

The digital nomad lifestyle also includes the ability to decide which hours of the day to work. Have you worked with either of these – people who are at the office and performing optimally at 6 am or those who labor late into the night to produce their best work? A travel worker can typically work most any hours including these extremes.

One popular flex work style includes those who travel to see the sights as a part their work. That leads us to the millennial travel worker.

Millennial Travel Workers

Often though not always millennials, top travel influencers can successfully make a living from their travels. They may be blog writers, photographers, adventure publishers or they may be experts in a travel niche such as a specific location or advising on how to become a successful travel worker. They ramp-up their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter followers, some up into the millions. Their star power appeals to advertisers who pay them to promote products or give them freebies to subsidize their adventures. If you are a travel company or produce a travel product, a recommendation from these influencers goes a long way to increasing visibility, sales, or recommendations for your business.

There are also companies like Remote Year that advertise “work and travel programs that bring together groups of professionals to travel, live, and work remotely in different cities around the world for a year or four months.” Participants travel in a group, pay a fee which covers travel, housing, and co-working space,  and they work in 12 different locations in one year. Women Digital Nomads offers a view of the pros and cons of that experience.

Some millennials have adopted the retire-first/work-later style. It involves shunning the serious job they studied for to travel the world while young. They subsidize that lifestyle by taking on unskilled, temporary work. Then later, they secure a serious/real job, have children and stay in one place. It’s a fascinating idea!

Millennial nomads are more likely to adopt one of these lifestyles and then embark on it as a solo traveler. Because of this, the growth of solo travel is rising significantly – more than ever before.

Baby Boomer Travel Workers

But travel work isn’t only for Millennials. Baby Boomers may have been the first to morph, maybe accidentally, into travel working. For Boomers, the transformation started with sporadic work-from-home days which became work-mostly-from-home. Then if you were working from home 100%, why not work while on an extended vacation? For some, this transitioned into a semi-retirement lifestyle as a freelancer whose whereabouts may be unknown.  I admit, this is how it happened for me and I thoroughly enjoy this work-from-home (or wherever) lifestyle.

Technology made it Possible

Technology can take credit for much of the digital nomad workstyle. According to Deloitte Insights, “The Fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0 is ushering in a digital reality, transforming organizations themselves.”

This digital reality has brought us convenient tools enabling us to work outside four office walls. Tools like Wireless/WIFI access and cloud computing have enabled access to documents, emails, and files. Working collaboratively via teleconference is easy with VOIP, Facetime and Skype,  for calls, meetings and screen sharing. Remote worker prevalence has also inspired the creation of physical co-working spaces in communities around the world.

One tool that’s perfect for digital nomads is OppteeTM Travel Search. Opptee helps simplify your search for travel by accessing the largest number of the most popular travel sites – hotels, flights, cruises, car rentals, and vacations – from within one app. With Opptee, you easily browse and compare more sites faster to help find the best travel deals.

If you are dreaming of a more inspirational work style or a way to live your best life, you too may opt to become a digital nomad. It’s these travel work, flex work, remote working styles that have all contributed to the Industry 4.0 era.

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