Porto Santo will have a hub for digital nomads

  • ECO News
  • 14 September 2021

The Digital Nomads Madeira project, a partnership between Startup Madeira and the regional government, will open a hub for digital nomads in Porto Santo next month.

Porto Santo will have a hub for digital nomads starting next October, a Startup Madeira initiative after the “huge success” of the Digital Nomad Village in Ponta do Sol, Funchal.

The Digital Nomads Madeira project, a partnership between Startup Madeira and the regional government, kicked off at the end of last year with the opening of the first Digital Nomad Village at Ponta do Sol in Funchal.

“The project was a huge success, we had over 8,000 registered and over 3,000 people in Madeira during the duration of the pilot project, from February to June, exceeding all expectations. We placed Madeira in the world top 10 destinations for digital nomads (the best position was 4th) on the Nomadlist,” adds Gonçalo Hall, digital nomadism consultant at Startup Madeira, to ECO.

“More important than the numbers was the very positive feedback. Almost everyone who has been to Ponta do Sol wants to come back, extended their stay for more than a month and found a strong community, with over seven events a day, made friends and had fun. Right now, several groups that met in Madeira are travelling together in Greece, Poland and Spain,” describes the project leader.

The project started with the will to extend to other areas of Madeira. “Our goal is to help the private initiative to create other hubs and replicate the success of Ponta do Sol. We have already launched Machico, Funchal and Santa Cruz and, on October 1, we will move forward with an old dream: the community for digital nomads in Porto Santo, which will include a free co-working space and daily events with a super special price at the Vila Baleeira hotel of €650/month in a single room or €800/month if there are two people, in one of the best hotels in Porto Santo,” reveals the consultant.

“The government is committed to maintaining and growing this project over the coming years as part of their strategy to diversify tourism and create new economic and social opportunities for the two islands of Madeira, so they have extended my project for another three years,” he adds.