Malaysia has so much more to offer to digital nomads aside from cities like Kuala Lumpur and George Town, such as the white sandy beaches and blue skies of Langkawi. — Filepics
THE white sandy beaches and blue skies of Langkawi, the deep verdant rainforests and winding rivers of Sabah and Sarawak, and the swaying padi fields in the idyllic villages of Kedah – step outside the concrete pavements of cities like Kuala Lumpur and George Town and people would realise that Malaysia has so much to offer.
And we should be using this to our advantage to set ourselves apart from our competitors if Malaysia wants to realise its goal of becoming a regional hub for digital nomads.
At the same time, developing rural areas to appeal to digital nomads will also help prevent congestion, says Dr Mumtaz Aini Alivi, senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya’s Media and Communication Studies Department.
“Rather than focusing on large cities like Kuala Lumpur, George Town or Johor Baru, we can develop less congested areas as potential digital nomad hubs.
“This will attract digital nomads to these regions and help avoid overcrowding in certain areas only,” she says.
Congestion is just one of the potential issues stemming from an influx of digital nomads that have been observed in other hotspot locations such as Bali.
Alberica Bozzi from France’s Université Gustave Eiffel specialises in city and regional planning, and in her September 2024 study the researcher noted that gentrification processes (increases in rents and living costs that displace local residents) linked to digital nomads are ongoing in the town of Ubud in Bali, while new businesses serving digital nomads there often come at the expense of the needs of the local population, among other issues.
“As any over-touristic destinations, emerging digital nomad hotspots might go through transformations that entails saturation of AirBnb rentals, environmental degradation, and gentrification,” said the study.
Since Bali has so much experience dealing with digital nomads, Malaysia can learn from the Indonesian island’s experience and take precautions to avoid the same challenges in the future, says Mumtaz.
“An influx of digital nomads could lead to issues such as overcrowding in popular hotspots, rising costs of living in certain areas, and other social challenges.
“By studying Bali’s experience, we can implement measures to mitigate these risks,” she says.
Mumtaz says Malaysia should focus on developing less urban areas to attract digital nomads and prevent congestion.
Digital Travel Technology Association of Malaysia president Rohizam Md Yusoff also points out another issue that many digital nomad destinations contended with before the introduction of special visas for them. His concern, he says, is that digital nomads will treat the destination country as a cheap working space, by renting unlicensed accommodations for example, without contributing to the economy in any significant way.
“We need to focus on attracting the high-yield digital nomads who make a more substantial financial impact by creating a more appealing environment for high-spending digital nomads,” he says.
Mumtaz adds that while digital nomads will undoubtedly boost the country’s economy, there must be a balanced economic environment if Malaysia is to learn from the challenges faced by other countries.
Digital nomads’ activities, for instance, should complement, not compete with local businesses, she says.
Sustainability is another thing to look out for – both in terms of the environment and the trend of digital nomadism.
Bozzi’s September 2024 study, for example, found that in Ubud, padi fields have been gradually converted into villas with swimming pools for tourists, expatriates, and digital nomads.
“The spatial needs of digital nomads, particularly in digital nomad hotspots, might lead to the destruction of natural environments for building co-spaces and other dedicated infrastructure.”
As such, Rohizam says sustainable tourism practices for digital nomads are important considerations.
At the same time, while digital nomads have been around for decades, the trend only really took off after the Covid-19 pandemic introduced remote working to most of the world.
In tandem with that, countries only really started to implement digital nomad visas after the pandemic started.
This has got Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association president Mint Leong wondering if the trend is sustainable in the long-term.
“This is actually a trend. So is it a trend that can be sustainable or is it just a temporary fad where people like to do this now, but after a while they will stop?”
