Niseko, Toya-Usu and Shiraoi are three Hokkaido destinations for travellers who want to feel close to the communities they’re visiting.
Travel
EcoBnb, when online bed&breakfasts become sustainable
In these days EcoBnb, a platform that, like the more popular AirBnb, offers sustainable accommodation in an increasing number of destinations celebrates its first anniversary.
Statistics and figures speak for themselves: having a wide range of private homes readily available and just a click away whatever your budget and anywhere in the world thanks to an intuitive and informal mediation system like that of AirBnb and of its numerous competitors has revolutionised hospitality and travellers’ routine. It was inevitable that, in the wake of the success obtained by AirBnb, a green version of this platform would be created and that all the hotel buildings with at least five of the ten requirements recognised by international ecotourism operators (use of organic or local food, buildings that fulfill the criteria of green architecture, use of energy from renewable sources, solar panels for hot water, eco-friendly cleaning products, recycling of over 80% of waste, accessibility by public transport, use of low consumption light bulbs, water flow restrictors and a rainwater recycling system) would be collected and showed on the Internet.
How EcoBnb was conceived
The project, conceived by an Italian team, was once called “Viaggi Verdi” (green travels) and then renamed EcoBnb. It was started a year ago and targeted to those who love paths and eco-friendly vacations in harmony with nature and the environment and like walking and trekking, riding a horse or a bicycle or making a boat excursion. But in short time it expanded rapidly and thanks to the support of the EcoDots project conceived by the European Commission to encourage sustainable tourism it reached the markets of Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
It now counts a community of 20,322 people and 2002 accommodations, with social networking services, specialised magazines, companies operating in the so-called green economy and technology that makes the portal accessible via smartphone.
EcoBnb proposes a great variety of accommodations, many more than the ones that ordinary or traditional B&Bs offer since with this platform you can choose to stay in an igloo with ice walls, in an ancient monastery, a farm, or even in a pristine land in the Dolomites only accessible with snowshoes. This is an evidence of the fact that these travellers don’t distinguish themselves for their predictability or banality at all.
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