Canada's West Coast is warm, welcoming and laid back to a degree that can unnerve visitors from the East. (Comstock Complete)

The greetings come thick and fast -- and from total strangers.

"Hi.''

"How's it goin'?''

"Great weather, eh?''

Canada's West Coast is warm, welcoming and laid back to a degree that can unnerve visitors from the East.

"You don't talk to strangers in Toronto,'' explained the earnest young man, a recent arrival from the GTA, who seated us in a Victoria restaurant last month.

"You don't make eye contact on the street.''

You may arrive on the coast well insulated but it's difficult not to thaw a bit when the staff at the airport departure gate trade jokes or an airport shuttle bus driver sounds disgustingly chipper considering the hour.

Or fail to smile when the hotel desk clerk recognizes your street address and squeals in delight because her sister once attended the university nearby.

At a Tourism Industry Association of Canada awards dinner the next night, one recipient made the point that the success of the industry rests on the front line -- that legion of airline agents, bus drivers, bellhops and restaurant servers too often taken for granted.

Their importance was driven home during a holiday last winter in New Zealand, where the front-line friendliness started with the immigration officer at Auckland airport and continued right through to Christchurch three weeks later, where an Air New Zealand agent gave us roomier exit-row seats, exclaiming "I love Canada,'' and the cheerful woman who took our departure tax payment urged us to "come back again.''

I couldn't help but compare this with the behaviour of a customs and immigration official at my hometown airport who, faced with a group of Asian men who didn't appear to speak or understand English, kept yelling the same question over and over. Or a cabbie who moaned about the money he was losing when I inquired about the advertised senior discount and groaned when I tried to pay with a credit card.

Ship them to Kiwi Land or to the West Coast for retraining, I thought, except it wouldn't be fair to inflict them on such nice people.

After the black-tie dinner in Victoria, I decided to have a nightcap. Still in my rented tux, I sat in the hotel lounge and chatted with the young barman about the beers of his native Mexico.

He asked about my formal attire, and I told him I'd just won a tourism award.

When I went to pay he put his hands up and said: "It's on the house.'' I asked him to change a bill so I could leave him a tip. "It's on the house,'' he insisted.

The front line of tourism? In Victoria, at least, it's holding up nicely.

- -- Stan C. Reade Photo of London is doing a photography tour to Yosemite National Park, Napa Valley and San Francisco April 19-27. Co-hosts are James Cowie of Stan C. Reade and freelance photographer Dave Chidley. An expert on photographing Yosemite will join the group there. The cost is $2,549 per person, double. Telephone (519) 433-2818 or visit www.stancreade.com.

- British TV series and movies will be the focus of an escorted, small-group tour Uniglobe Plus Travel Group in Brampton is planning. It runs May 5-17, includes stops at Lake Windermere, York, Buxton, Bath and London. The cost is $3,995 per person, double. Phone 1-800-254-7598.

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The Radisson Resort Hecla, a five-star destination resort two hours north of Winnipeg on Lake Winnipeg, opened last month. Among its attractions are an 18-hole golf championship golf course, a spa and wellness centre with Icelandic influences, three restaurants and ecological tours. Phone 1-800-267-6700 or visit www.heclaoasis.com.