🎒 DIGITAL NOMADS

Yucatan lures digital nomads with free Wi-Fi, new airport, and passenger train.

If you’re a digital nomad and don’t already love Mexico, the Yucatan is taking bold steps to show you why you need to reconsider.

Mexico’s Caribbean coastline is already home to some of the most popular destinations for digital nomads like Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and the inland (but equally awesome) city of Merida. But the region is doubling down and stepping it up in three big ways:

📡 Free internet. The state of Quintana Roo announced a plan to cover several popular cities with free high-speed internet. The first cities to receive service include Tulum, PDC, and Cozumel.

🛬 New Tulum airport. Construction of the Tulum International Airport began in 2022 and is scheduled to begin operations on Dec 1, 2023. So far direct routes from the US include Atlanta, DFW, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Charlotte, and Orlando but that list will grow by the summer. The new airport will make it much easier for tourists & nomads to get to Tulum without having to fly into Cancun and take a bus.

🚝 Yucatan passanger train. The Tren Mayaa will connect several key cities along the Caribbean coastline and originate in Palenque, in Chiapas. The train is designed for regular passenger service as well as tourists trying to get around the Yucatan. It will include cars meant for long-distance passengers and have a restaurant car.

Together all of these new infrastructure projects will make the Yucatan an even more attractive destination for tourists and digital nomads.

The only question now is if the restaurant car is going to serve Margs? 🍹

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💻 REMOTE WORK

New study finds remote companies outperform on revenue growth

Is your CEO considering pulling back into the office? Show them this!

A new joint report by Scoop and BCG found that companies with a flexible remote working policy generate 16% more top-line revenue than those with an office-only work policy.

The research analyzed data from 554 public companies and tracked revenue growth between 2020 and 2022, first normalizing the data for industry performance to eliminate differences between high and low-growth sectors.

Debbie Lovich, a senior partner at BCG, says that the report doesn’t yet show that flexible work policies cause higher revenue growth. More likely, the flexible work policies are one likely “symptom” of a culture that trusts workers and values forward-thinking strategies.

“I doubt those companies would be taking attendance and measuring badge swipes,” she said.

🔮 FUTURE OF WORK

‘Super commuting’ is on the rise - what that means for the way we live

Back in July, I wrote about the curious case of Sophia Celentano who travels between NYC and North Carolina for her job on a bi-monthly basis.

This is an aggressive case of super-commuting - traveling 90+ minutes to work one way…

And it’s (likely) on the rise! The percentage of the workforce that qualified as super-commuters doubled between 1990 and 2019, from 1.5% to 3%. The last time a study on super-commuters was done was in 2021, and that percentage had dropped to 2%. But don’t forget - that’s in the middle of COVID.

It’s very likely that the next time a study like this is done, that percentage will be much higher! We’re hearing more and more crazy super-commuter stories. For example:

• Lee Robinson is the VP of developer experiences at the tech startup Vercel and commutes to SF from his home in Des Moines, Iowa once or twice a month

• Ivana Istochka is the VP of demand generation and community at tech startup Amity and is required to spend one week a month in the company headquarters in Milan. She lives in Lisbon.

Statistically, super-commuting is most popular with high earners who work in tech.

Some of that is likely because they have the funds to spend the money on travel (although in some cases they might not be spending that much more) and because the tech industry is the most lenient when it comes to workplace flexibility.

If super-commuting continues to increase, it could spell a problem for some mid-sized cities.

Super-commutes tend to work in large cities like NYC, SF, or London while living in small towns. Mid-sized cities could get lost in this... too big to live in, too small for a super-commuter.

🚨 WORD ON THE WEB

• 🏨 Outsite raises $325 million. The coworking & coliving brand will use the funds to build 150 boutique hotels in Europe over the next 5 years. “Right now we don’t really have a demand problem. We have more supply issues,” said founder Emmanuel Guisset.

• 🏆 The top 50 names in the future of work. Forbes just released its annual list of the 50 most impactful leaders in the future of work. Among them are familiar names like Prithwiraj Choudhury, Annie Dean, and Brian Elliott along with some curveballs like Taylor Swift.

• 🎟️ Half of all destinations now offer nomad visas. The World Tourism Organization found that nearly 50% of all global destinations now offer some form of a digital nomad visa, with no signs of slowing down.

• 🌆 15-minute cities. Urban areas around the world are starting to test the idea of a ‘15-minute city’, promising a higher quality of life with less pollution, but some conspiracy theorists see it as the start of ‘climate lockdowns’.

• 👏 Flexible work decreases No. 1 cause of death in the US. A new study suggests that remote work could help to reduce the risk of heart disease, especially in people 45+ and those with already high-risk scores.

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS:

Dec 7-13: Nomad Island Fest [📍 Madeira, Portugal] - Learn from world-class industry experts on topics like mindset, marketing, tech, wealth & health.

Know of any other events within the next 4-6 months? Reply to this email and let me know!

🌍 WFA JOBS:

Looking for a job that’s not just remote, but that you can work from anywhere in the world? We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Check out these awesome WFA positions 👇

⭐️ Remote Accountant @ Pixellu

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⭐️ Content Writer @ FortuneWriters