What makes a digital nomad destination? The case of small states

Digital nomads are a growing class of working travellers who can transform destinations. However, little attention has been paid to countries’ proactive efforts to attract digital nomads. This study has two aims: (1) to identify structural differences between digital nomad destinations and other countries, and (2) to determine which combinations of supply and demand factors influence countries’ self-selection as digital nomad destinations. Using a mixed-method approach, we compare digital nomad visa issuers and non-issuers among 50 small states, examining supply-side factors (e.g., institutional capacity, geographical location, tourism maturity) and demand-side factors (e.g., connectivity, accommodation and work facilities) through descriptive statistics and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Our findings reveal that digital nomad destinations exhibit a higher prevalence of islandness, geographical proximity to European and North American markets, and substantially greater availability of digital nomad-specific infrastructure. The fsQCA identifies three configurations leading to visa implementation, all sharing islandness and nomad-specific infrastructure as core factors. Critically, tourism maturity is not a necessary prerequisite for attracting digital nomads, offering opportunities for peripheral destinations to diversify through targeted infrastructure development. We contribute to tourism geography scholarship by empirically connecting supply and demand perspectives on digital nomadism and applying the innovation diffusion and core-periphery theories to explain implementation patterns.