**7. Conclusions**

The concept of the integrated approach to tourism planning needs to be implemented through continuous and consistent dialogue and discussion more focused on the economic, social, and environmental aspects. The analysed theoretical paradigms offer two different and opposite approaches to the EU island tourist destinations. The islands' fragile territories with limitations and evident economic disparities compared with the mainland tourism economies are considered a great opportunity for economic development using local natural resources (Mazzola et al. 2019). The tourism economy specialisation for islands needs to investigate the tourism model adopted or chosen. As explained above, the literature analysis shows two paradigms: the IBTM and CBTM.

Both paradigms have limitations and identify two different tourism evolutionary scenarios useful for the EU's future island tourism policies. The integrated approach (Zarb 2017) could be followed, considering the two presented tourism paradigms. In this way, an integrated approach could ensure commitment, trust, and synergy between all three stakeholders—the local authorities, businesses, and the local community (Murphy 1985; Britton 1984; Krippendorf 1987; Zarb 2017, 2019).

The CBTM limitation in the planning process is related to the difficulty of establishing a fragmented society where the key stakeholders and shareholders work within their dedicated and isolated cells. Therefore, the host community must learn to adapt to the changing situations and cultures affected by the tourism demand. This means looking at the broader socio-cultural activity rather than the sectoral socio-economic area.

Despite working under the sectoral socio-economic area, as in the tourism industry model, the stakeholder often works isolated and based on a single specialisation.

In an integrated approach, stakeholders work consistently and continuously, not simply as observers but as active participants, which will mean that there can no longer be two traditional blocs in the stakeholder structure, that is, those who work directly for the industry and the rest, but the host community has a role to play in enriching the visitor experience. The community must possess a powerful element of commitment, trust, and synergy for all the stakeholders. This synergy must be demonstrated by consistently evaluating the activity and reviewing any timely processes, policies, and strategies. Building such an interpretation of the tourism activity will allow the stakeholders to provide a basis for sustainably and responsibly managing tourism with their involvement.

This article highlighted for EU island destinations the effect of rethinking, redeveloping, and restoring tourism as a socio-cultural activity. Consequently, a sustainable and responsible approach is where the host community, the business community, and the authorities will benefit both in terms of the social and economic factors. The need to reopen the tourism activities now indicates a stubbornness that will surely lead to the decline of tourism as an activity where hospitality and service are vital components but where the emphasis is on making a quick return, irrespective of the long-term damage to the environment and the local communities. Therefore, sustainable tourism in islands could follow a more integrated approach with local communities following relational hospitality based on people. The limitation of this article relates to the small number of variables

considered as a proxy of the two adopted island tourism models. The limited data available for sub-regional territories at the EU level reduces the possibility of deep analysis. Further study must also compare the economic performance and the economic, social, and environmental positive and negative impacts.

**Author Contributions:** G.R.: conceptualisation; formal analysis; resources data curation, writing; M.P.: methodology, software, validation, writing; J.Z.: writing, review, resources, supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Marco Platania acknowledges the financial support of the fund "Linea Intervento 2—Piaceri" from Catania University.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data are available at www.Eurostat.eu. Access date: 24 June 2022.

**Acknowledgments:** Individuals included in this section have consented to the acknowledgements.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
