Tourism is worth $1 billion/year in Newfoundland and Labrador, with the overwhelmingly majority of the industry centered in St. John's (208,000 Metro - so $1 billion is a lot for us) and, to a far lesser extent, the Gros Morne National Park region of the west coast.
Tourist season runs from early summer (during which most are Canadians and Americans who drive here) to late fall (during which most are Europeans who arrive via cruise ships). The main attractions here are the landscapes (including exposed portions of the earth's mantle, incredibly significant fossil beds from critical periods in the evolution of life, etc.), the historic communities (including the only authenticated Viking village in North America, or so they say), icebergs (in late spring), whales, and nightlife (George Street and environs is nothing but pubs, clubs, and dance halls).
When I was growing up, most tourists tended to belong to either the Brady Bunch or Backpacker camps - comfortably middle class and either wide-eyed at anything they couldn't get at a Walmart or stoned. These days, it's more of a mixed crowd. We're even, for the first time, attracting a significant number of extremely wealthy and celebrity tourists. Facilities such as the Fogo Island Inn are contributing to this tremendously.
We're famously hospitable so people go out of their way to make tourists comfortable. Most people seem to really love having the tourists around. We used to be quite a busy, cosmopolitan city. The Portuguese would be here every summer for months on end with their white fleet. The Icelanders would fly over every fall to do their Christmas shopping. All of that has disappeared, for the most part, so tourists are really our only regular visitors from the rest of the world (which, here, is simply called "away". "Oh, you're from away, welcome!").
I wouldn't describe us as friendly, however, although that's the term most tourists use. There's simply no facade, what you see is what you get. People wear their hearts on their sleeves and are far more open and boisterous than tends to be the norm elsewhere in North America. Think of it as a Baltimore inhabited by people whose fathers were from Boston and mothers from Minneapolis but everyone is drunk.
We've won a shitload of awards, around the world, for our tourism videos. Their style and slogans have been subsequently mirrored by other Canadian provinces.
• Video Link
So the industry is something local people are very aware of. The annual visitor numbers are always front page news. People generally stay in touch with tourists they happened to meet or help somehow.
Personally, I love it. I always strike up a conversation with obvious tourists. You meet awesome people that way.