ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, digital nomads, a group of people who work remotely while traveling, have been emerging as a hot research topic in the global academic community. With the rising number of digital nomads in China, several tourist destinations, such as Dali in Yunnan, and Anji in Zhejiang, have evolved into digital nomad destinations, and this trend is expanding. However, the concept of digital nomads remains relatively unexamined by China's academic community, as evidenced by the limited academic research and considerable lag of academic research behind industry practice. First, this paper establishes the conceptual foundations of digital nomads based on content analysis. It offers a detailed definition established through an exploration of the work, travel, and lifestyle perspectives of digital nomads. Six indicators have been identified to distinguish digital nomads from remote workers, business travelers, and working tourists, including location independence, mobility, work focus, work digitization, precarity, and travel frequency. Further, the characteristics (including the pursuit of freedom, uninterrupted travel, working while traveling, professional and informational literacy, and invasion and integration of the destination culture) and supporting systems (co-spaces, digital and technical support, and economic and social support) are discussed. Next, this paper investigated the origin and evolution of digital nomads through an analysis of the evolutionary paths of work style from nomadic worker to digital knowmad, and from knowledge worker to digital knowledge worker to digital knowmad, the evolution of leisure travel style from backpacker to flashpacker to flashpacker nomad and the evolution of lifestyle from nomad to global/neo-nomad to digital nomad. Finally, the current state of digital nomad research is surveyed, highlighting research themes, key theoretical frameworks, gaps in knowledge, and areas for future research. Insights into digital nomads are explored, including (1) the applicability of conceptual definitions of digital nomads at the operational level, (2) the practical validity of theoretical frameworks for digital nomad research, (3) the impact of digital nomads on the evolution of destinations, the urban-rural development, digital economic development, and the mechanisms involved, and (4) the emerging research on digital nomads in China with a focus on understanding the unique economic, social and cultural characteristics of digital nomads in China compared to other countries. Based on the insights shared in this paper, future research directions for digital nomads are envisaged. This paper establishes a baseline for the research on digital nomads to guide future scholarly attention toward digital nomad research and provide a basis for the development and practical application of relevant theories in the context of the digital economy.