Work and travel is something that we have been taught that they should be separated because one can take away the time we need to enjoy or perform well the other, but in recent years we have seen how necessary it is the leisure time to develop better, so much so that many have chosen to work but to enjoy travel while they do it.
This need was heightened by the Covid pandemic and according to Vedika Bhaia, a marketing entrepreneur, “After working from home for more than a year, I needed a change of environment,” she and her work friend went on a 15 days backpacking trip to India’s Parvati Valley last summer, and here’s a little about their experience.
The friends’ journey
The two friends took a trip to India where they trekked between lodges, explored the natural environment where they were staying, paraglided and much more, all without stopping work as they had planned a full workload equivalent to the 15 days of travel they would have on their laptop.
Bhaia says she is used to working remotely but wanted to go to the next level by being able to “work from anywhere“, the entrepreneur’s main motivation was Covid as the pandemic forced her to stay cooped up for longer than she really enjoys, “I knew traveling would do wonders for my mental health and help me overcome the creative block I had” she says.
During these “Workcations” Bhaia learned how to combine work and leisure without them getting in each other’s way. One of the requirements to be able to carry out this type of plans is to always have internet access in those places where we decide to stay, also something primordial is the organization to be able to work in the hours of rest, and finally is to try not to do daily activities where we can be very exhausted.
What are the “Workcations”?
Workcations are taking hold thanks to the Covid pandemic as many workers are now teleworking, and now in the third year of the pandemic with fewer and fewer cases and more open borders is one of the best times to travel. Workcations are the evolution of “Bleisure” which were trips that combined business and leisure travel.
This new modality is combined with the possibility of teleworking and the large number of apps that facilitate travel to new places without the need for extensive planning or a large amount of money. According to several studies during the year 2021 about 30% of teleworkers claimed to have taken Workcations, now so far in 2022 this figure increased to 47%.
Experts argue that this has increased thanks to the need to be outdoors and explore, something very beneficial for mental health, in addition to this something that has helped this increase in tourism is that there are many countries that to attract tourists after the great recession that had this sector is that there are many travel deals at lower prices than normal.
Travel in Covid’s time
During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic it was very complicated to travel or leave home due to the large number of restrictions, but over time these restrictions have been decreasing, but now thanks to this new post-covid era there are many new rules that have been implemented to travelers, some of these are the following:
- There are countries that have a list of countries where tourists arriving from that destination must make a quarantine of up to 14 days.
- To travel to new destinations tourists must have a vaccination card with the 3 doses, in Europe you must get the “Green pass” to be able to circulate in closed places, and in other parts of the world you only have to present your valid vaccination card.
- Some countries only allow the transit of tourists who have vaccines listed and accepted by them.
- The maximum capacity of people in closed places has been reduced compared to the years before covid.