Today, we are concluding the international Nomadland project, which explored how to attract digital nomads to rural areas. Together with partners from Spain, Germany, and Croatia, we concluded the project with an online webinar, on which we presented the project to more than 50 youth workers from all over Europe. In the future, we would like to attract digital nomads to Idrija as well.
European rural areas are experiencing a rapid exodus of young people. This phenomenon is not only related to Slovenia, but also to other countries. Therefore, we have created a project partnership with 4 partners, which took place within the Erasmus+ program. The partners Id20, Udruga Prizma (Croatia), ATPERSON (Spain) and INI-Novation (Germany) are dealing with similar problems - young people are leaving the unpromising countryside, including smaller towns. So how do we attract them back?
Although the Nomadland: digital nomads - an opportunity for European rural areas project was primarily a research project, it also highlighted some concrete challenges. In our case, the pilot areas of the project were in Idrija (Slovenia), Gračac and Iž (Croatia), Cuenca (Spain) and Bergstrasse - Odenwald (Germany). In the year and a half of the project, we achieved a lot - we were the first in Europe to connect the emerging field of digital nomads with youth work. Our work was also reported by one of the world's largest travel portals, Condé Nast Traveller.
The countryside - a paradise for digital nomads
Digital nomads are a growing trend that is already shaping the tourism offer in different parts of the world. In Slovenia, they are still relatively unknown, as they are not yet included in the national tourism strategy. However, some neighboring countries are already aware of them and are placing them at the forefront of development initiatives. This is especially evident in neighboring Croatia. In recent years, there has been another trend: urban young people are rediscovering the countryside and nature, fleeing from the stressful urban life. Although life in the countryside is very different from urban life, where you can quickly find a community of like-minded people, special camps (called retreats) or even co-living spaces are rapidly growing in Europe. This is how digital nomads and other enthusiasts of organized countryside exploration are meeting with the local community, including many young people.
Breakfast with French crepes or an office in a German barn
You can read more about the trend of digital nomadism, coliving spaces, and retreats in our Nomazine, a magazine for discovering digital nomads. In it, we have gathered 21 good practices and talked to 10 digital nomads who have chosen the countryside for their stay. In the magazine, you can find out what a coliving space for more than 30 digital nomads on a German farm looks like, or how to join yoga and breakfast with local crepes at a French castle. An interesting trend that we have also researched is how these locations are connected to youth work. You can read more about this in our Nomazine!
The second phase of the project focused on attracting digital nomads in a more concrete way. We published a guide for attracting digital nomads to the countryside called "Beyond the City Lights." The guide, which is divided into three parts, describes in seven steps how to establish a retreat for digital nomads, explores the links between youth work and digital nomads, and explores how to finance a retreat or co-living space for digital nomads. The guide is available in five languages, including Slovene! The guide also publishes a short strategy for attracting digital nomads, which was developed with the help of 21 youth workers who joined us for a training session on the Croatian island of Iž.
Creating a digital nomads' land with high schoolers from Idrija
You are probably wondering what next. We do not want to stay only with research, but we believe that something will also come out of the project in the near future. For this purpose, we organized a workshop in October, in which we collaborated with students of the Jurij Vege Gymnasium of Idrija, who are developing tourist content for the wider area of Idrija within a special program. We also thank the Idrija Tourist Board, the Idrija Youth Center and the UP Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica, who helped create the event.
Idrija through the stories of young people
Our project did not just want to present the world of digital nomads, but also to present the European countryside. On a special platform, Nomadland, we presented all 5 destinations of the project. Five young people from Idrija told about life in Idrija, who see themselves in a city with a countryside in the future. We also presented the stories as part of a special campaign #ZgodbeIdrije (Strories of Idria) on our social media (below you can watch the video we shot with the musician Nace Kogej).
We are waiting for the first digital nomads
We also presented the project at a special webinar attended by youth workers from all over Europe. Of course, we want the project to not stop at research only – we want to attract digital nomads to Idrija, scheduled for the next year or two. To this end, we are already cooperating with students attending the UP Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica in Portorož and with the Idrija Youth Center. The topic is also perfectly aligned with the revitalization of the mining houses and the future residential center planned in the mining house Giser.
In the coming months, we want to present our work to other youth organizations in Slovenia, the Slovenian Tourist Organization, and to anyone else who may be interested in the project. We hope that together with our partners, we will be able to attract the first digital nomads to Idrija next year, initially on a pilot basis, who could help to promote sustainable tourism development in the destination in the future.
