Rio Joins the Race to Attract Digital Nomads

The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro has launched an initiative to attract global digital nomads, with the city administration requesting the country’s National Immigration Council to issue special visa for foreign remote workers.

Already, as many as 56 hotels, 14 hostels, and 18 co-working spaces in Rio have agreed to host digital nomads, according to local news outlet Panrotas.

Some luxurious resorts in the outskirts of the city are also boosting their ICT infrastructure in the hope of welcoming deep-pocketed foreign teleworkers. Across the country, around 40% of resorts are altering their properties to meet the needs of digital nomads, according to the Associação Brasileira de Resorts, a lobby group in the country’s hospitality industry.

More than 7 million Brazilian are working remotely following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Digital nomads are growing in number, and so are the number of countries trying to attract them with special offers. Many Caribbean countries, including Dominica and the Bahamas, have launched similar initiatives.

Analysts say that the lack of vaccines and the rising rates of new covid cases have been the stumbling blocks in their way to welcome global remote workers.

Brazil has been one of the worst victims of coronavirus, with more than 500,000 fatalities.