Croatia opens a specialized village exclusively catering to digital nomads and international entrepreneurs on October 10.
The new Digital Nomad Valley Zadar (“The Valley” for friends) is located in Bokir, a few minutes away from Zadar’s historic center.
It offers luxurious mobile homes and campsites alongside the beach equipped with fast WiFi connection and co-working spaces.
Those who rather live by themselves, as well as people who enjoy living with others, will find housing opportunities that fit their needs and preferences.
The cost of a stay starts at €260 for a minimum of two weeks. This makes €520 per month, which is significantly less than the typical apartment rent in most European countries.
Participants will also be able to attend networking and social events organized by the project’s administrators.
“As many digital nomads are entrepreneurs and work for themselves, we want to create networking events and conferences about entrepreneurship, and involve the local community as well,” said Mario Mrksa, CEO of grabAhome and the mastermind before the village initiative.
“There are lots of serious entrepreneurs living a nomadic lifestyle, and we want to attract them to our cause,” he added.
But, building a village and promote it to digital nomads is not enough to make these types of projects work. Much more is needed and they had help.
Once the pandemic badly hit Croatia, the government rapidly acted to attract digital nomads (usually high expenders) who could help them keep the economy away from the disaster cliff where other EU countries were already hanging off.
For instance, Croatia became one of the first European countries to launch a digital nomad visa scheme in January 2021.
The visa’s favorable terms started to make the news and pick the attention of international digital nomads and remote workers.
The new series of special visas for digital nomads have also been extended to travelers outside the EU, allowing them to work and enjoy the country for a year without paying income tax.