Why digital nomads love Calgary?

Digital nomads are people who live and work where they want, rather than moving to where there is work. They are social media influencers, content creators, software designers and developers who can work remotely from anywhere if they have access to the internet and other modern technology infrastructure. And yes Calgary is becoming more and more attractive to these nomads.

Everyday Tourist Tip: If you are thinking of moving to Calgary and looking for a place to stay here is one best to find Calgary townhomes for rent.

This chart illustrates how International immigration to Calgary has increased significantly in the early 21st century.

Shaw Millennium Park with its mega skate park, basketball and beach volleyball courts, festivals and climbing rocks makes Calgary’s downtown attractive to nomads.

Weekend events like this one in downtown’s Century Gardens invite newcomers to meet their neighbours and create a sense of belonging to a community.

Nomads love street festivals and multi-cultural cities.

Nomads love cities with outdoor recreational activities.

Recently, Daniel Harper a digital nomad himself posted on social media that he moved to Vienna because it was the most liveable city in the world based on the Economist Intelligence 2023 Global Liveability Index (Calgary is currently #7). However, his experience was less than positive.  He found the people unfriendly and the winter dark and dreary. While this is a sample size of only one, it reminds us that what makes a city livable is different for different people and at different stages in our lives.  

Nomads love downtown Calgary’s many places to just chill.

The Global Liveability Index measures things like economic stability, culture, entertainment, education, healthcare and reliable infrastructure. 

It also doesn’t differentiate between what is liveable for nomads vs couples vs young families vs older families vs empty nesters etc.

For almost everyone moving to a new city, one of the key factors must be how easy it is to meet people and make new friends.

Friendly Cities

PREPLY, a US-based online language learning platform, has conducted research on what cities are the friendliest to newcomers using several key metrics:

The Bridge has a space dedicated to residents who want to create podcasts.

• Visitors return rate: The percentage of visitors who return to each city after travelling there, indicating if the location left a good impression.

• Friendly staff: The percentage of accommodation reviews mentioning ‘friendly’, giving an idea of how welcoming local staff are.

• Community respect: The city’s safety index score, which indicates if it’s a safe environment for both natives and newcomers.

• Acceptance of diversity: The LGBTQ+ equality score in each city, which indicates if this is an accepting and supportive community.

• Happiness: The city’s overall happiness and wellbeing score, according to inhabitants.

• Ease of communicating through a common language: As English is the language in the world today.

  Using these variables, Toronto is deemed the world’s friendliest city, with Sydney # 2 and Montreal #6.

  Calgary, Vancouver and Vienna - cities traditionally are ranked in the top 10 of the most livable cities are not in the Top 20 most friendly cities. However, this study, like most city ranking reports has a built in bias, in this case PREPLY users.

Nomads love funky places for photo shoots.

Nomads love cities with funky architecture and public transit. Calgary has one of the best public transit system in North America for a city its size.

“Hi” Index

One of the things I love to do when flaneuring is to say “Hi” to people I walk by or sit next to on a bus or train. It is always intriguing to see if people say “Hi” back and even engage in a conversation.  I wonder if one could measure a city’s “friendliness” by how many people say “Hi” to strangers as they walk by and how many strangers say “Hi” back.

Note: A month after posting this blog Conde Nast Traveller’s 2023 Reader’s Choice Awards found Calgary was indeed the “Friendliest” city in the world.

Nomads love streets with a vibrant street/patio culture like Stephen Avenue Walk, 17th Ave SW or Kensington Village.

Nomads love cities with a diversity of festivals and events.

Nomads love Calgary’s parks.

Nomads love live music venues.

Calgary #1 / #7 For digital nomads

Nomads cities with a sense of spontaneous fun.

In yet another city survey, by Commercial Search (a US-based real estate company based in the USA), ranked cities with a population of 400,000+ that were the best option for digital nomads, based on two factors: affordability and internet access.

To my surprise, Calgary was # 1 in North America and #7 worldwide. It was the only North American city to make the top 10 in the world.

Also, surprisingly the other top 5 in North America cities were #2 San Antonio, #3 Panama City #4 San Jose, (Costa Rica) and #5 Mexico City - not the big high tech cities that get all the attention but probably due to their greater affordability.

Last Word

I was first alerted to Calgary’s growing attractiveness to digital nomads late in 2022 when touring through JEMM Properties’ The Bridge, a residential development in Bridgeland Riverside neighbourhood and was told most of the people moving in were international immigrants who love living in Calgary’s city centre with its easy access to easy access to river, parks, downtown and cultural amenities.

Nomads love shopping a “pop-up shops.”

Yes, Calgary is competing successfully in the new global economy in attracting “knowledge workers,” “creative class,” “yuppies (young urban professionals),” “digital nomads” - or whatever we are calling them these days.

Digital nomad immigrants are one of the major factors driving new residential development in Calgary’s city centre today (especially the Beltline, Bridgeland, Kensington and East Village). Downtown’s “office to residential conversions” will hopefully appeal to nomads looking for affordable urban living that will allow for more conversions in the future.

If you like this blog here are a few more that might interest you:

Downtown Living Is Cooler Than You Think!

Calgary’s Sweet Spot Is Urban Living For Families

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