A prerequisite for ecotourism development is the presence of natural environments, normally exhibited in protected areas, which serve as ecotourism venues. Little attention has been given to Mediterranean islands in terms of ecotourism. In this paper, nine islands in the central Mediterranean region were studied through a case study approach to investigate their potential as ecotourism destinations, taking into account the presence of protected areas and related aspects, including spatial dimensions and quality, to fulfil ecotourists. Larger islands with higher population densities were found to experience habitat fragmentation, and protected areas were thus in some cases relatively small and dispersed. In contrast, smaller, less populated islands were found to be more ideal ecotourism destinations due to limited anthropogenic impact and their capacity to fulfil the expectations of the ‘true specialists’, also known as ‘hard ecotourists’. Quality of ecotourism venues was found to affect ecotourist satisfaction. Ideal ecotourism sites on heavily impacted islands were found on the island periphery, in coastal and marine locations, with marine ecotourism serving as the ideal ecotourism product on such islands.

中文翻译：

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小岛屿作为生态旅游目的地：地中海中部视角

发展生态旅游的先决条件是存在自然环境，通常在作为生态旅游场所的保护区中展示自然环境。在生态旅游方面，对地中海诸岛的关注很少。在本文中，通过案例研究方法研究了地中海中部地区的9个岛屿，以研究其作为生态旅游目的地的潜力，同时考虑到保护区的存在以及空间尺寸和质量等相关方面的存在，以使生态旅游者满意。发现人口密度较高的较大岛屿经历了生境破碎化，因此在某些情况下保护区相对较小且分散。相反，较小的 由于人为影响有限以及满足“真正的专家”（也称为“坚硬的生态旅游者”）期望的能力，人口较少的岛屿被认为是更理想的生态旅游目的地。发现生态旅游场所的质量会影响生态旅游者的满意度。在受到严重影响的岛屿上，在沿海和海洋位置的岛屿外围发现了理想的生态旅游地点，海洋生态旅游是此类岛屿上的理想生态旅游产品。