The World's Sexiest Islands

Yahoo! Finance has a feature this weekend on the world's sexiest islands (go here for the slideshow). Good stuff to look at if you want to plan your dream vacation.

However, I can't quite make sense out of the first paragraph:

For many people, islands are forbidding, somewhat frightening places. Isolated and cut off, they have been the refuge of castaways, exiles and evil geniuses, such as Prospero and Dr. No.

Huh? Who feels this way? Does anyone, let alone "many people", find the idea of an island vacation "forbidding"?

I just can't imagine having this conversation:
Person: "Jack, where have you been the last few weeks? Haven't seen you around."
Jack: "Just got back from two weeks in Bora Bora. We stayed in a room that sits over the lagoon at the Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa."
Person: "Really? Wasn't that forbidding, frightening, and isolated?"
Jack: "Uh, no. Have you been taking your medication?"