The Shikinejima Island Workcation project aims to promote understanding of the island using exchanges between the island’s residents and visitors. Following the first tour, we hosted another tour consisting of an off-site meeting (overnight lodging away from the office to have meetings for long periods of time and structuring organizations).

Employees from SAGOJO, Inc. a company that operates a job matching website （https://www.sagojo.link/） and travel that connects travelers and companies joined the two-night, three-day tour from March 22nd to March 24th, 2023.

The four participants who joined the tour have only met in person several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique characteristics of their work. They joined this tour to stay overnight to improve communication and team building. After they arrived on the island, they rode around on electric assist bicycles, working on their individual tasks when they returned to the lodging.

During their off time, they went fishing or snorkeling. They also went to Jinata Hot Springs to enjoy a warm bath, completely immersing themselves in the activities the island has to offer.

At night, they enjoyed grilling food on the barbeque, offering them time to communicate with each other, the main purpose of this tour. Usually only speaking with each other online, this real-life meeting allowed them to show their smiles.

Although the group praised the island’s stress-free accessibility, small size that doesn’t require a car to get around and enjoy the island, lack of distractions to focus on work, and how great the place is to team build and experience hot springs with coworkers, they expressed concern about the instability of the internet connection, lack of food options for the long term and problems with the general island infrastructure.

This tour reconfirmed our beliefs that the island workcation style works well with corporate training and overnight lodging, giving us ideas for possibilities in the future. Going forward, The Shikinejima Island Workcation project will actively promote this tour to companies who want to improve internal communications or provide new employee training.