Work from anywhere: traditional workation, coworkation and workation retreats: a conceptual review

“Workation” is a new type of remote work in response to the increasing digitalization and flexibilization of work. By facilitating a combination of the domains of work, recreation and private life with an optional touristic-oriented pursuit, workation spaces promote flexible work practices and have significant impact on the working lives of knowledge workers, companies and several industries worldwide. While the original task of the real estate industry is to provide jobs in the form of offices, new players are suddenly entering the market, such as the hotel industry. This interesting mixture opens up exciting research approaches. There exists a rather extensive knowledge gap in literature understanding these work–leisure activities. Particularly striking is the lack of a clear classification of workation and little empirical evidence on workation exists. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a coherent descriptive basis, definition and classification of workation based on first empirical evidence by outlining a case study. The conceptual analysis finds that workation can be categorized into three types – traditional workation, coworkation and workation retreat – each with different characteristics. Finally, affected industries are studied and effects from workation on economies are shown. By providing a first taxonomy of workation, this paper might serve as a basis for further research.