People who refer to themselves as digital nomads are really lucky in that their ability to work remotely means that they can travel as well and pretty much work from anywhere in the world, which many of them do. They often use a simple trick to effectively enjoy accommodation for free, which is that of renting out their primary residence while they’re away and then using that money to pay for the accommodation where they’ll be visiting.
One thing often comes to light as a result of this however and that is the fact that the costs are disproportionate. If you have £800 as a result of revenue generated for renting out your place for example, you won’t necessarily get a similar place to yours at your holiday destination. The same goes for many other goods and services you’d buy at a typical holiday destination town – things are generally more expensive.
There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is the mere fact that the local vendors do indeed endeavour to take advantage of the fact that some foreign currency is coming into the country and tourists are generally prepared to spend quite a bit when they’re on holiday.
The perception of limited options
So I guess I’ve already touched on the perception of limited options available by stating that tourists are seemingly more willing to spend more on their holidays because they think it’s okay, but that’s exactly what it is at times – perception. That’s why something like accommodation goes for a premium at so-called prime locations such as along the beachfront as there is a perception that there are only a limited number of rooms available. Sometimes it’s not perception to be fair, but the locals definitely won’t mind one bit if tourists believe that the experiences or goods they want to buy aren’t perhaps available anywhere but there.
The exotic location trade-off
In many instances when you take a look at the environmental factors of a specific place you’ll realise that if that place is good for one thing then it’s probably really bad for another. For example, an exotic island destination may have very fertile ground, but it won’t be conducive for something like growing food crops, which could then need to be imported and therefore are expensive to start off with. The price is passed on to the tourists of course and then things go back to the perception of limited options. You have nowhere else to go so you end up paying whatever is quoted.
Wear-and-tear knock-on effect
If you think about something like tyre maintenance from the point of view of your own private vehicle in comparison to something like that of a vehicle used as part of a taxi service, the wear-and-tear is much more rapid, so it costs more for the taxi operators to service their tyres and other parts of their vehicles at the likes of the local equivalent of TyrePlus. And because of the primary need to make a profit the service providers would naturally factor-in such costs in the price they subsequently pass on to the tourists.
