Attract Expats willing to contribute

Peter Thompson, CEO of Remote Work Barbados, believes that the impact of the spending of digital expats is significant, and it is important to continue to invite people who understood the 21st century economy and were willing to contribute to the island as they enjoyed the benefits of staying here.

Thompson was speaking during a virtual panel discussion based on The Future Tourism Project, established by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to assist governments and key stakeholders including MSMEs to help them build back better in the context of the COVID-19 landscape. The diverse panel shared professional and personal insights as well as key research findings and emerging trends, specifically to the idea of a new profile for visitors to the Caribbean.

The CEO of Remote Work Barbados said that the 12 Month Welcome Stamp Visa, which now has had 2 500 successful applicants, should be just the first version and there should be additional upgrades to the current program with more incentives presented as each digital nomad moves on to the next level. Those initial applicants over a ten month period has contributed approximately $6 million in fees to Barbados with the expectation of $120 million over the next year in accommodation alone.

“The fact is that we need to develop long-term relationships with people who come to visit us, both to develop the contribution to the community, but also to develop their commitment to helping us in our journey toward becoming the best place on the globe to live. So come for a year and then we reach out and invite you for another year and do some extra perks, so that you have version one, version two, version three, version four and people coming back for work over their entire working lives and for longer than a year if they so choose,” Thompson argued.

The tourism expert stated that the path should be directed towards creating new neighbours and making them feel comfortable being part of the society.

Ava Nasiri, SAP Engineer and Digital Nomad spoke of her experience in Barbados as part of the 12 Month Welcome Stamp program. She explained that it was an outstanding program and one of the things which would encourage her and others to return even more, as well as attract new digital expats, was possibly a subscription system. Nasiri used the example of a one-time purchase of a movie ticket to the Caribbean where after the duration of the movie, you exit the Caribbean. She then compared that to a Netflix subscription where the subscriber paid per month or an annual fee to have access to content.

"If you told me, Hey, would you sign up for a visa program that said you could come to the Caribbean for four months of the year, over the next five years, and maybe some of the housing systems and maybe some of the other activities and use co working spaces and things like that and said, you can pay an upfront fee or you can pay an annual fee, and you can come and spend up to x number of time in this space over the next four years, then that does not commit me to a time limit of having to leave the island." she said.

The SAP Engineer also explained that it would benefit the island similar to how many tourists come to the region during winter months, so digital nomads can choose certain times of the year to be on the island which suits them best. She also highlighted that children could grow up in the Caribbean, see and understand various cultures and more importantly, they would all have a sense of belonging to the Caribbean.

"I know that I can come back and in the winter months I will be coming back and then, you know, maybe ten years from now and I have some kids, I want to move them somewhere interesting for a couple of years then, I already have a sense of belonging and a very deep, established connection with the Caribbean, and I think that that over time, especially if you look at the demographic of digital nomads and what age groups, they may be existing in today and that over the next 50 years would be really interesting." explained Nasiri. (AS)