We are a group of people who love travelling abroad, as well as exploring our own territory, trying to do this respecting people and the environment. We are convinced that new technologies give a great possibility to exchange beautiful experiences and to communicate and give support to each other.

The Ethicalsurfing portal was created to communicate and, in particular, let travellers know, about resources and efforts spent to change society in a sustainable way all around the world, as well as to develop an eco-fair economy in each territory.

As a member of the portal, you can easily reach precious information about a territory. Ethicalsurfing gives you the possibility of searching a specific "place of interest" or widely exploring a territory. For example, if you are interested in parks near Florence, you can digit "natural area" as category and "Florence" as a place...and here you have your results!

The categories are referred to fair trade shops, eco-friendly accomodations, social projects and so on. They all are directed to visitors as well as to inhabitants who want to discover the sustainable and fair places of their own territory.

Here you have the list of places of interest to start your search:

PLACES OF INTEREST

accommodation
art & culture
sport activity
local authorities’ best practices of sustainability
coffee-catering
environmental education centre
wellness
commune & co housing
farm
drinking fountain
creative workshop
sustainable mobility
music & entertainment
volunteering opportunity
park-natural area
social environmental project
point of sale of sustainable products
guide-guided tour

When reading the description of a selected place, further suggestions about "places of interest" nearby will appear on the right side of the page.

This functionality allows you to better organize your trip and to enlarge the possibilties of your exploration! For example, if you are looking for a natural park, you will also see on your right side a list of organic farms, organic restaurants and fair trade shops nearby the selected place. You will, moreover, find also environmental guides operating in that park to organize a guided tour. Obviously you will also find suggestions about accommodations which pay particular care to the environment.

If you live in the selected territory, the research can be useful to find cycling routes or organic farms as places to visit and to buy healthy products directly from farmers, or, moreover, to find eco-friendly shops and markets.

Ethicalsurfing is an interactive exchange-platform. Through net-surfers spread in different areas, Ethicalsurfing will be able to collect and share a database of organizations and individuals, that offer interesting travels, while experimenting an “ethical way to tourism”. This web-portal will contain the profiles (proposed activities, type of accommodation etc.) of the supporter organizations from each country involved in the project. This is how the net-surfers will be able to find information about local experiences and best practices, to exchange data, to create contacts or simply to establish a dialogue.

The connection between ethical tourism and local sustainable development is evident. Ethical tourism tends to minimize the impact on the environment as well as to maximize benefits for local people through a concrete support to local commerce and economic activities. The added value of this project is to build a solid link between people with a responsible idea (and practice) of tourism and organizations and individuals operating locally in accordance with the idea and the practice of sustainable development.

Thus, the project intends to become a network developing from local communities, from people and associations dealing with social issues, cooperatives which work to protect the nature, local producers which preserve biodiversity. It will allow visitors, surfers, travelers, citizens to learn about the vitality and care that derive from fair economy and sustainable activities within the European society. It will encourage an ethical way to discover all these places, activities and communities.