The dark side of being a digital nomad.
A study by Passport Photo Online has found – not surprisingly – that the life of a digital nomad isn’t all out lazy days around the pool and piña coladas at sunset.
Seeking the views of 950 US digital nomads, Passport Photo Online discovered loneliness, lack of romance, burnout, FOMO and guilt as challenges for those working from remote locations.
Among the findings:
Roughly four in 10 digital nomads (41%) claim their lifestyle affects their ability to maintain romantic relationships.
Some 83% of location-independent professionals feel guilty for taking time off or disconnecting from work.
A full 77% of nomads have experienced burnout at least once, with entrepreneurs (80%) being the most affected by this epidemic.
An average of 40% of location-independent workers feel lonely often or always.
Only 12% of digital nomads never experience fear of missing out. The remaining 88% experience it rarely or occasionally (41.02%), frequently (20.96%), and always (25.98%).
Financial stability and taxes were also among the concerns of digital nomads.
Regardless, 94% said they intend to continue their nomadic lifestyle in 2023 and beyond.
The full study can be found at https://passport-photo.online/blog/dark-side-of-digital-nomadism/
Swiss turns to AI to count passengers onboard
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) plans to conduct a three-month trial, together with an external partner ,of using artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct its passenger count during the flight boarding process.
The digitalization of the passenger count procedure is intended to enhance security and simultaneously ease the workload of the airline’s cabin personnel.
The trail will take place on selected SWISS flights from Zurich between April and June, when a camera will be temporarily installed in the cabin for the boarding process, to record passengers as they embark and determine their total numbers.
The recordings, used solely to train the AI application in the boarding will comply with Europe’s and Switzerland’s strict data protection laws throughout the trial process.
Passengers on the flights concerned will be informed of the trial before they embark.
Emojis may be cute but are they effective in renting your Airbnb.
A study by researchers at Monash University’s Business School in Australia shows that less is more when it comes to using the emojis to advertise Airbnb properties.
The paper, which studied emoji use across more than 195,000 Airbnb listings in the US, is the first to look specifically at the effects of ‘non-face emojis’ in marketing communication and offers important insights for digital marketers and other sellers.
“Our findings suggest that for the majority of regular users in digital marketplaces, non-face emojis are actually an effective differentiation tool in a competitive environment,” lead researcher Dr Davide Orazi said.
But use too many to substitute words and they’ll hinder, rather than help, your selling power.
Emojis such as smiley or winky faces popped up in the late 1990s to help compensate for the lack of non-verbal cues in computer-mediated communication.
“Now there are almost 3664 registered, unique symbols,” Dr Orazi said. “About 90% of those are non-face emojis – everything from thumbs to beers, to rainbows.”
However, despite these emojis being used just as frequently as their emotion-sharing counterparts, their effects from a marketing perspective are little understood, Dr Orazi said.
The researchers looked at how Airbnb hosts, and ‘superhosts’, used non-face emojis in their short listing titles, and whether that affected electronic word of mouth. In this case, online reviews.
In the Airbnb reviews, the researchers looked at two different styles of using emojis: complementary, where for example, the word beer is followed by a beer emoji, and substitutive, where the beer emoji replaces the text entirely.
For regular sellers, the study found using one complementary emoji can increase electronic word of mouth by about 2% or more with multiple emojis.
But those substituting more than one word with emojis should tread carefully, because it’s much harder for the brain to process and will lead to worse results, Dr Orazi said.
For superhosts, the study recommended using a maximum of one complementary non-face emoji – if any.
“If you’re a premium seller, you’re expected to ooze competence. One emoji can grab attention and feel a little playful but go beyond that and you run the risk of looking unprofessional.”
Head to Brisbane for a good hotel deal
Heading Down Under? Agoda has gone through the data to find the tourist destinations with the cheapest average accommodations.
In April, Brisbane is Australia’s most affordable destination where travellers can enjoy an average room rate of A$186 a night.
Also in Australia’s top five are Cairns ($187), Melbourne ($205), Hobart ($218) and Perth ($234) respectively.
For Aussies heading overseas, the destinations with the cheapest average accommodation rates across the APAC region are Khon Kaen in Thailand, Sibu in Malaysia, Surakarta in Indonesia, Puri in India, Bacolod in Philippines, Ninh Binh in Vietnam, Chiba in Japan, Gwangju in South Korea and Kinmen Islands in Taiwan.
