Digital Nomads – Scapegoats or the Community Builders of Tomorrow?

Gonçalo Hall: "Nomads Are Being Blamed for Problems They Didn't Create"

Gonçalo Hall, founder and international entrepreneur in the digital nomad movement, recently published the following argument on LinkedIn. 

"While you see headlines in the media and posts in your feed claiming that "nomads are disappearing," I have just visited five destinations that are desperate to welcome them. What is wrong with this narrative?

Digital nomads are generally a net positive for society. They bring new ideas, perspectives and experiences. In a well-managed destination, the benefits of welcoming nomads extend far beyond their economic impact. You can feel the difference among the people.

When the term and the lifestyle became fashionable during COVID, we began seeing something strange for the first time: nomads being blamed for the housing crisis and rising living costs in certain cities.

One of those cities is my own, Lisbon, where I was born and raised.

I constantly read opinions in the media attacking my community. No data, just raw opinions directed against a community they do not fully understand. "The others."

And I have to say that the far left and far right in Portugal are neither particularly creative nor particularly different. Both blame "the others, the foreigners" for everything that is wrong with the country.

It is convenient because nobody defends these outsiders. They are nameless, represented by neither an organization nor any political power.

Why is this so fundamentally wrong? Let me explain the reality:

1. Digital nomads are remote workers who travel the world while working. They use tourist accommodation and typically stay for an average of one to three months. They generally have no interest in buying property in Lisbon because they travel full-time. The media narrative blaming "nomads moving to Lisbon" is deeply mistaken. I suspect they are actually talking about digital immigration. The distinction matters.

2. The number of digital nomads arriving in Lisbon represents at most 1% of tourism, and I believe it is closer to 0.1%. It is difficult to blame a global housing crisis on 1% of tourism, at most.

3. Digital nomads are price-sensitive. They take advantage of destinations during the low season, using tourist accommodation when it is affordable. Once prices rise dramatically and seasonality disappears, those destinations stop being attractive.

The countries, regions and businesses that recognize this reality are thriving, and there is much more that can be done.

In the Algarve, most tourist accommodation still closes for more than six months each year. The west coast continues to suffer from seasonality. Rural areas are empty.

Instead of understanding digital nomads and their potential to counter seasonality, bring money into economies that need it and share knowledge, the media and certain political parties choose to demonize them.

All in the name of clicks.

Because blaming "the others" is easier than confronting the bureaucracy and poor political decisions that created this global housing crisis.

Fortunately, some places are proving smarter than that.

Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Dubai, and numerous rural destinations in Italy and Spain are actively working to attract nomads. In some cases, it is almost a matter of survival.

The movement will continue and will be on the right side of history."

There is much in Gonçalo Hall's argument that I agree with. Above all, I share his frustration with the ease with which politicians identify new groups to blame when longstanding social problems become too difficult to address. But something else also strikes me. Hall criticizes the media for oversimplifying reality while doing much the same himself. He describes digital nomads as an almost universally positive force and dismisses their influence on the housing market using figures he openly acknowledges are estimates. That is not particularly convincing.

To understand what is actually happening, we need to move beyond both the romantic image of digital nomadism and the political search for scapegoats. We need to examine how a new form of international mobility is changing economies, individual opportunities and even the meaning of belonging to a community.

When a Housing Crisis Needs Someone to Blame

Lisbon is a revealing place to begin because the city has undergone a remarkable transformation in a relatively short period. Once a European capital with an ageing housing stock and relatively limited economic opportunities, it has become an international magnet for tourists, investors, entrepreneurs and remote workers. That transformation has brought new businesses, employment opportunities and investment. At the same time, the housing market has moved in a direction that makes it increasingly difficult for many Portuguese people to continue living in their own city.

On October 27, 2026, thousands of people gathered outside Portugal's parliament to protest against the housing crisis. According to the Associated Press, renting a one-bedroom apartment in Lisbon often costs around €1,500 per month, while the country's minimum wage stands at €920 before tax. Those figures reveal the seriousness of the situation. For someone who can no longer afford to remain in their own neighbourhood, it makes little difference whether international newcomers are officially described as tourists, digital nomads or economic migrants. The consequence may be exactly the same: someone with greater financial resources can afford to pay more.

Hall is right about one essential point. It would be unreasonable to blame Portugal's housing crisis on digital nomads. The problems are considerably older and more deeply rooted. The OECD's 2026 economic review of Portugal identifies a combination of insufficient construction, complicated permitting procedures, underused housing and structural weaknesses in the rental market. These are political and economic conditions that cannot be explained by a few thousand people discovering that they can work from a café with a reliable internet connection.

But that does not mean international demand is irrelevant. The OECD reports that Airbnb listings in Lisbon increased from just over 18,000 in 2019 to more than 21,000 in December 2024, representing approximately 7.6% of the housing stock in the area examined. Research has also identified relationships between short-term rentals and higher property prices in certain parts of the city, although these effects are geographically concentrated.

This is an important distinction. Digital nomads are not responsible for the entire housing crisis, but they form part of a broader pattern of international demand in which tourism, capital investment and temporary accommodation compete for portions of the same limited housing stock.

Hall's estimate that digital nomads represent only between 0.1% and 1% of Lisbon's tourism is also an insufficient argument. Without a reliable source, it is impossible to assess whether those numbers are accurate. More importantly, visitor numbers alone tell us very little about the housing market. A tourist staying three nights and a remote worker renting the same apartment for three months have different implications for the rental market. Occupancy, accommodation type, geographical concentration and alternative uses of residential property all need to be considered.

It is perfectly possible to criticize xenophobia without denying the economic consequences of international mobility. In fact, the argument becomes considerably stronger when both realities are acknowledged.

Bansko – A Living Experiment in International Mobility

This discussion inevitably brings me to Bansko, the small Bulgarian mountain town at the foot of the Pirin Mountains where I spend much of my time. In many respects, Bansko is the opposite of Lisbon. It does not have the same metropolitan economy, international property market or population pressure. Instead, the town has long depended on winter sports and seasonal tourism. For years, one of its challenges has been finding ways to sustain economic activity after the snow disappears.

The digital nomad movement has become part of the answer.

Over the past decade, Bansko has developed coworking environments and international networks that attract entrepreneurs, freelancers and remote workers from around the world. What was once primarily a ski resort has begun developing a second identity: an international meeting place for people who no longer need to live wherever their employer happens to be located. Bansko Nomad Fest 2026 attracted more than 1,000 participants from over 50 countries, according to the Bulgarian News Agency. For a town with roughly 10,000 inhabitants, that represents a significant international presence.

I have personally worked with Bansko Nomad Fest and experienced some of the international environment that has developed around it. What interests me most is not necessarily the presentations or the sight of people working behind their laptops. It is the mixture of professional backgrounds, nationalities, life choices and ambitions. People who would otherwise be unlikely ever to meet suddenly find themselves in the same place. One person is developing a digital business, another works in communications, someone runs a consultancy, and somebody else is attempting to create an entirely new way of life.

It is easy to understand Hall's enthusiasm for such environments. They offer something that conventional tourist destinations rarely manage to create: recurring relationships, professional networks and people who can contribute economically even outside the traditional high season.

But here, too, the reality is more complicated. A Euronews report published in February 2026 describes how Bansko's international development has contributed to new restaurants, businesses and improved services. At the same time, newcomers describe rising living costs and gentrification. Interestingly, they do not point exclusively to foreign nomads, but also to Bulgarians leaving larger cities and moving to Bansko.

That is precisely what makes Bansko so interesting. It is still possible to observe how a smaller community changes when it begins attracting people whose financial circumstances and international mobility differ from those traditionally associated with the town.

The question is not simply whether the transformation is positive or negative. The question is who benefits, who gains new opportunities and who risks being left behind.

Consuming a Place Is Not the Same as Contributing to It

One of Hall's strongest arguments is that digital nomads bring more than money. They also bring ideas, knowledge and experience. I believe he is right, but only under certain conditions. Bringing internationally experienced people together in the same geographical location does not automatically mean their knowledge will benefit the surrounding community.

There is a risk that international nomad communities develop into social islands. People work in the same coworking spaces, socialize within the same international circles, attend the same events and communicate almost exclusively in English. The local economy receives restaurant spending and rental income, but meaningful exchange between people remains limited. You can live in a country without ever really becoming part of it.

This is hardly unique to digital nomads. Similar patterns exist among retirees who move abroad, internationally employed professionals and second-home owners who spend half the year in another country. The difference is that the digital nomad movement frequently presents community, knowledge-sharing and personal development as some of its defining qualities. That makes it reasonable to ask how much of this actually reaches beyond the movement itself.

For me, this is one of the most interesting questions about the future. Imagine if Bansko's international networks were connected more closely with local entrepreneurs, schools, associations and people who want to expand their opportunities. Not through charity or by inviting international visitors to tell local residents how things should be done, but through genuine mutual exchange.

It could involve digital skills, entrepreneurship, languages, education, small-business development or something as simple as people with different experiences beginning to collaborate. Those kinds of relationships can continue long after someone has left their temporary accommodation.

But creating them requires more than marketing. Municipalities, organizers and local institutions must genuinely want to encourage these encounters. It is not enough to attract international remote workers and assume everything else will take care of itself.

Equally important, local residents must not become background characters in an international lifestyle product whose main selling points are how cheap, beautiful and convenient everything is for those arriving from elsewhere.

The New Freedom Is Bigger Than the Nomad Movement

There is another aspect of this development that I find considerably more interesting than the concept of digital nomadism itself. It concerns how the relationship between work, technology, age and geographical location is beginning to change.

For much of modern industrial history, people have been forced to move to where employment opportunities existed. Factories, offices and institutions determined where we lived. We organized our lives around the geographical location of our workplaces. Digital technology has begun to change that arrangement, even though only certain professions currently offer the possibility of working entirely independently of location.

Artificial intelligence is now adding another dimension to this transformation. Tasks that previously required specialist expertise, larger teams and significant financial resources can increasingly be carried out by individuals using digital tools. That does not mean competence has become unnecessary. On the contrary, the ability to define problems, evaluate results and understand relationships between different fields of knowledge is becoming more important.

This is also one of the reasons I am developing PROTO, my independent digital concept studio, and PROTO PLUS, an initiative aimed at people over 60. I am myself an example of someone who no longer needs to organize life around a conventional workplace. For me, it is not about travelling around the world with a laptop under my arm. It is about being able to remain creative, independent and productive on my own terms.

That opportunity deserves to be discussed far beyond the digital nomad movement. What happens when people with decades of professional experience can use new technology to create something of their own? What happens when retirees, independent creators and small entrepreneurs can develop ventures without large organizations? And what happens to smaller towns when more people can choose where to live according to quality of life rather than the traditional demands of the labour market?

There is a social transformation taking shape here that is larger than digital nomadism or coworking spaces. It is about liberating human experience and creative ability from some of the restrictions that have long defined working life.

But this freedom is not equally distributed. Someone who can bring an international income to a lower-cost country enjoys an economic advantage that a locally employed person often does not have. We cannot ignore that. It is another reason why the success of digital nomadism must be assessed in terms broader than the number of international visitors and their spending.

The Winners of Tomorrow Will Not Necessarily Be Those Who Attract the Most Nomads

Gonçalo Hall concludes his post with the conviction that the nomad movement will continue and find itself on the right side of history. I have difficulty with that formulation. History rarely offers such guarantees. The fact that a movement represents something new does not automatically mean it represents something better for everyone.

There is also something contradictory about claiming to stand on the right side of history while promoting an economic lifestyle that depends, to a considerable extent, on people's ability to benefit from differences in income and living costs between countries.

I believe international mobility will continue to grow. Perhaps the term digital nomad will eventually lose much of its significance. When location-independent work, digital entrepreneurship and flexible ways of living become more established, we may no longer need a special identity for people who choose to work from different places.

The truly interesting developments may instead take place in communities that manage to combine international openness with strong local roots. Places that do not simply count visitors, but ask what their presence contributes. Places where new businesses, meeting spaces and educational opportunities are not designed exclusively for an international community, but also strengthen the prospects of those who already live there.

This also requires political responsibility. Housing must remain accessible to local residents, infrastructure must develop alongside demand, and economic success must translate into better everyday lives for more people than those who can afford to move in.

Bansko could become an interesting European example of this approach. Not simply as a successful destination for digital nomads, but as a place where international expertise and local community life begin developing together. The potential exists, although there is no guarantee it will be realized.

I therefore believe Hall is asking the wrong question when he wonders why the media criticize nomads while other destinations are eager to welcome them. There is no contradiction. Different places face different economic circumstances. A depopulated rural village and an overheated capital city do not necessarily need the same solutions.

The important question is not whether we should welcome or reject digital nomads. It is how we can create communities in which international mobility becomes an asset without forcing local residents to bear the cost.

Because it is only when newcomers and established residents genuinely share in the same progress that international mobility becomes something more than another global marketplace.

The most successful destinations of tomorrow may not be those that attract the largest number of digital nomads, but those that create the greatest lasting value from bringing people from different parts of the world together.

And that is a far more interesting ambition than simply claiming to be on the right side of history.