Understanding Vanlife: the current state of the art of a vehicle-based hypermobile travel phenomenon

This article outlines the current state of the art on Vanlife from a tourism perspective, highlighting and summarizing definitions derived from literature. Hypermobile lifestyles, often used interchangeably with Vanlife, such as ‘Digital Nomads’, ‘RVing’, ‘Backpacking’ and ‘Lifestyle Travellers, are reviewed by theoretically depicting the similarities and separating factors between the concepts. The literature section applies an integrative approach to advancing knowledge and producing a theoretical framework. Based on the literature review and identified research gaps, this paper develops the Vanlife segmentation research framework. The framework paves the way for future studies on Vanlife and its various segments. Lastly, a definition of Vanlife in a tourism context is provided to aid future research on the vehicle-based hypermobile travel style.