A few years ago I took my girlfriend to Prince Edward Island to meet my family for the first time. Like a good Islander, I took her on a drive that would encompass all of the sights -- red cliffs, tiny villages, views of golf courses and of course, Cavendish -- the home of Anne of Green Gables and the epicentre of all that is P.E.I. tourism.

Unfortunately, this drive was near Christmas, when much of P.E.I. is a winter wasteland of ghost towns and attractions -- and my girlfriend was left with a rather dreary view of the island when we left to return to Toronto. Should've travelled in the off-season.

There is a different set of seasons in P.E.I. than in most of the country. There is the tourist season, roughly from the long weekend in May until September -- and every thing else is the off-season.

At the start of tourism season there is a wonderful metamorphosis. The red dirt pops out from under mounds of snow, the roads start filling up with cars with different licence plates (but are not too busy), Canada's best beaches enjoy oodles of beach bodies (but again, not too many) and cute little shops open up after a winter's hibernation. This is the P.E.I. that people recognize from the commercials.

P.E.I. is much like Las Vegas in this (and only) way -- its identity is so intertwined with tourism it's hard to gauge which came first. Lucy Maud Montgomery and her tales of "Anne of Green Gables" are at least partly to blame.

The combination of Montgomery's writings of the idyllic "Island Way of Life" and the post-Second World War rise of automobile-assisted tourism quickly turned tiny Prince Edward Island into a proper tourism destination by the 1950s. And it continues to be one a half-century later.

While tourism numbers across the country have taken a bit of a hit in recent years -- high gas prices and a skyrocketing Canadian dollar are blamed -- this summer is expected to be a good year as P.E.I. celebrates 100 years since Montgomery published "Anne of Green Gables."

P.E.I. Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty is, not surprisingly, the nicest cabinet minister I've ever spoken to. She says that the department expects to see an "Anne bump" this year because of the celebrations and all the events planned.

More than 10 per cent of first-time visitors come to P.E.I. specifically for Anne of Green Gables. Scores more come probably also come because of Anne's subtle branding of the "Island Way of Life."

The Island Way of Life

"We are so well-known for our warmth and our hospitality, or our general openness when we meet new people," Docherty says.

The "Island Way of Life" is a throwback to gentler times. P.E.I. promotes itself as a place to go to relax, get away from the stresses of modern life, spend time with your family and to meet welcoming people. The place is built on nostalgia, even for those who haven't been there.

Even the rock stars are excessively polite.

Alec O'Hanley, the guitarist for Two Hours Traffic, the Island's biggest musical export in years, says that while it might be better for his band to head to a major centre, P.E.I. holds too much appeal.

"It's a pace of life here," he says, in a slow Island drawl. "Everyone tries to help everyone out here. There's a spirit of being the little guy."

P.E.I.'s culture can get lost among its larger (but still small) East Coast cousins. It doesn't quite have the confidence and brashness of Newfoundlanders, New Brunswick's unique bilingualism or a city like Halifax, which has produced international stars like Sidney Crosby, Ellen Page and Alexander Keiths.

"It can get slightly annoying, all people know about P.E.I. is Anne and potatoes," O'Hanley says of the people he meets while touring. "I've had the odd person say, 'I didn't know people live there,' but that was more Americans than Canadians."

But there's a certain je ne sai quoi, that is hard to put a finger on, that defines an Islander. Most Islanders have a sense of pride in being Islanders, not for any particular accomplishments, but for being an Islander in itself.

Docherty mentions that when she travels, she says "hello" to people in the hotel elevator -- which can "freak some people out." That's an Islander for you. Everyone is like that person on a big-city subway who starts talking to you out of the blue. But in a good way.

Anne's impact

It's hard to underestimate the impact of Anne of Green Gables on tourism. Certainly, the books, movies, musicals and TV shows spawned by Montgomery's imagination have done even more for PEI tourism than the Lord of the Rings movies has for New Zealand.

"It has multi-generational appeal . . . not every writer can write something in the early 1900's and have it be every bit as popular years later," Docherty says of Montgomery's work.

Tourism is the second largest of P.E.I.'s three main industries and Docherty says that someday it could surpass agricultural as the Island's economic engine.

About 10 per cent of Islanders work in the industry during the peak summer months, running bed and breakfasts, serving Cow's ice cream and manicuring golf course greens. And many, many people, make a living doing something Anne-related.

O'Hanley recalls a number of tourism-related jobs in his youth. I try to get him to say something bad about Anne of Green Gables but he won't bite.

"Oh, she's a fine girl," he says dryly.

An entire town, Cavendish, has sprung up around the Anne. In 1937, the area -- renowned for its beaches and sand dunes -- was made a national park. Included was Green Gables, the farm the Montgomery based her Anne novels on. Thanks to shows like "Road to Avonlea", most Canadians have an image of the area's past ingrained in their head.

Cavendish in modern times, however, is a rather kitschy resort town. It's full of small amusement parks, both running and failed (RIP Rainbow Valley), eastern Canada's only Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum, and plenty of shops and accommodation for tourists.

While beautiful beaches and nature are literally minutes away, the town itself can be seen as a patchwork of tourist traps and a reminder of a period in time when every idea that might interest a tourist, was considered a good idea.

In the glory days following the opening of the Confederation Bridge in 1997, tourism numbers boomed and golf courses seemed to spring up like dandelions. When visitors arrive on the island from the Confederation Bridge, they are immediately hit with Gateway Village -- a shopping mall disguised as a turn of 20th century village that happened to be built in the 1990s.

But between Gateway Village and Cavendish, the Island remains quite genuine. Despite controversy over some agricultural practices, P.E.I. has pushed itself as the "green" province. For urbanites, the Island's rural quaintness and emphasis on nature can be quite appealing.

On P.E.I., you are never more than 10 minutes from the water or a place where it's just you, the sky and the sounds of crickets. While many things have changed since 1908 when "Anne" was written, that's one thing that hasn't.

Las Vegas may have its bright lights and the celebrities, but P.E.I. will always have the stars.