The causes, process and result of becoming a digital nomad family: a phenomenological case study Fatih G€ unay and Derya Toks€oz Tourism Faculty, Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Isparta, T€ urkiye, and Zeynep Aslan Tourism Faculty, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, T€ urkiye Abstract Purpose – The aim of the research is to reveal information with regard to being a digital nomad as a family. Within this brief, the aim is to provide information regarding the reasons for choosing the digital nomad lifestyle of families, the female and male thoughts regarding the experience, destination selection factors and the difficulties and conveniences of digital nomadism for family aspects. Design/methodology/approach – The data were obtained through a semi-structured interview questionnaire with a British digital nomad family, individually from the wife and husband, using a qualitative research design in the scope of the phenomenological research. Findings – It was determined that having a better lifestyle, being willing to spend more time with family and traveling with them were the reasons for becoming a digital nomad. The opinions of the woman and man are in parallel. While the main features of being a digital nomad are freedom and flexibility, having time to spend with family is also important. Factors for choosing a destination as a nomad were access to nature, quality of life, cost of living, quality of the food, climate, proximity to other families who are nomads and interest in nonschool education. As a family, they meet their needs and wants, such as going to a local shop or staying in a rented house, but prefer to use restaurants and other facilities if their stay is short. Although having children motivates digital nomadism, it has been determined that families prefer to stay in a fixed place as nomads since it is not appropriate for children over a certain age to travel frequently. Originality/value – The study provides detailed information regarding a family experience with digital nomadism through a case study. Keywords Digital nomad family, Phenomenological case study, Reasons and factors affecting becoming a digital nomad, Pandemic, Choice of destination Paper type Research paper Introduction There have been many changes in business life in recent years. While the daily, weekly and monthly rhythms of work have changed over time, another change has been in terms of the spatiality of the work (Hardill and Green, 2003). In particular, in the last five years, there have been developments in traditional working methods, combining technological possibilities and constant traveling. Although short-term and part-time jobs are the result of temporal changes, working from home and working in cyberspace are the result of spatial changes in jobs (Olson, 1983). Innovations in information and computer-mediated communication technologies that support and enable remote working are causing more and more companies to succumb to the remote working method (Popovici and Popovici, 2020). The abovementioned developments in business and employment opportunities have revealed a new type of tourist for the tourism sector. This new type of tourist, called “Digital Nomad” (DN), introduced into the literature by Makimoto and Manners (1997), represents a combination of remote working and tourist travel and is a lifestyle in which professionals travel constantly by doing business digitally over the internet (Schlagwein, 2018). Digital WHATT 16,3 294 We would like to thank the family who served as the study sample for their participation and sincerity. We also thank Edward McQuaid for his contribution to language editing. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1755-4217.htm Received 15 March 2024 Revised 18 March 2024 Accepted 18 March 2024 Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes Vol. 16 No. 3, 2024 pp. 294-302 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1755-4217 DOI 10.1108/WHATT-03-2024-0042