Wilson, JMoore, Kevin2018-01-312017-03-172017-03-170047-2875FU7UX (isidoc)https://hdl.handle.net/10182/8983There have been recent calls to reconceptualize tourist decision-making models. This study presents evidence for a model that depicts on-site tourist decision making as a socially embedded (discursive) performance in which frontline tourism staff members play key roles. Such performances aim to achieve tourism experiences that serve the multiple interests of participants in the decision-making process. Interviews with frontline staff in Canterbury, New Zealand, revealed a “performance” in which a complex set of discursive skills, interpersonal strategies, and service attributes were displayed. Together these generate—via conversation—socially embedded environments of trust that, in turn, lead to outcomes optimized for decision-making effort, decision justifiability, and the avoidance of negative emotions. Findings are discussed within the framework of the “discursive action model,” which highlights a process that has appropriate tourist experience, deemed authentic, as its goal.14 pagesen© The Author(s) 2017decision makingfrontline staffperformanceauthenticitytrustdiscursive action modelJournal Article10.1177/0047287517696982ANZSRC::1506 TourismANZSRC::150606 Tourist Behaviour and Visitor Experience1552-6763ANZSRC::3506 MarketingANZSRC::3508 TourismANZSRC::4406 Human geography