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This paper aims to explore tourism consumer’s perceptions of cultural, emotional and behavioural differences. The subjective personal introspection (SPI) approach is used to investigate specific cultural differences which impact tourism satisfaction. It aims to identify the key attributes of cultural tourism satisfaction by comparing three European cities. The cultural attributes are synthesised into a confirmatory personal introspection (CPI), and a provisional research model is proposed.

The research data of the cultural experiences are based on SPI data of “native-visitors” to London and ordinary visitors to Venice and Barcelona. The duration and the travel arrangements are the same for all three cultural experiences. The CPI uses thought experiments to formulate new research propositions.

The SPI results show that the tourism gaze focus can be the cognitive-affective experiences of cultural holidays. Tourism consumer satisfaction is dependent on the quality of natural and man-made attractions and the social-emotional interactions between the hosts and guests in a destination. The three cities in our research, London, Venice and Barcelona, have different micro-cultures and levels of social-emotional interactions vary considerably between them. Overall tourism satisfaction is hypothesised to be influenced by the degree of social interaction and micro-cultural differences.

The findings support the usefulness of SPI in tourism consumer research. SPI research findings produce in-depth understandings of the cultural tourism product attributes which cannot be captured in any other way. The personal insights are valuable to marketing professionals because they provide first-hand feedback of consumer’s perceptions over a longer period than a focus group session. The confirmatory introspections are valuable hypotheses to be tested empirically with specific tourism segments to identify product strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats.

The use of SPI and CPI produces original hypotheses of the cultural tourism attributes which influence tourism satisfaction. The paper demonstrates that the tourism gaze can be expanded to investigate the cognitive-affective observations which have a direct effect on tourism satisfaction and decision-making.

To discuss the importance of the relationship between service providers' positive affective displays, the value of a “real” smile within the consumers' perception of authentic service delivery and how these relate to satisfaction and future intentions.

The literature review discusses underpinning theory concerning the role of expressive display in service provision. In particular the importance of authenticity is explored through qualitative and quantitative research in an extended duration service setting. The quantitative data are analysed using SPSS and path modelling (AMOS).

The findings indicate a strong positive relationship between affective displays (including the “real” smile), overall service satisfaction and life satisfaction.

The study advances existing research and raises suggestions for future research including how personality differences may affect the service provider's ability to interact with their customers appropriately.

The wider implications for marketing practitioners are concerned with the services marketing mix. The authors suggest ways that managers may improve interactive service standards.

The literature reveals no other study that has quantified the value of a “real” smile within expressive display.

This introductory paper aims to offer a rudimentary model that describes the antecedent recipes for creating native-visitors. The paper describes what is unique and valuable about the seven articles that follow in their descriptions and explanations of the behavior of native-tourists. This special issue is to honor the originality and value of the contributions of tourism research’s leading critic, John Urry.

The paper presents a paradigm that includes eight profiles of tourists identified by low/high conjunctions of knowledge, training and authentication of performances of tourism places. The study calls for a normative stance that tourists should develop a sense of obligation to learn before visiting to enrich understanding of what they are seeing and to reduce the negative outcomes of the tourist gaze. The method includes describing the unique and valuable contributions in each of the seven following articles in the issue.

The analysis and outcomes are viewable best as propositions from a thought experiment. The seven articles that follow the introduction are appropriate data for a meta-review of the development of new meanings of tourism generated from the concept of native-tourist.

This study may spur necessary additional work to confirm that native-tourists do interpret performing tourist places differently and more richly than naïve tourists.

The article is high in originality in establishing the benefits from studying native-tourists as unique contributors to clarifying and deepening the meanings of tourism drama enactments.

Internal organisational aspects of service delivery from the employee's perspective have received some attention in the literature. However, there is a need for more detailed empirical research to explore the possible impacts of specific internal service factors (ISFs) on service quality. This paper seeks to consider the overall influence of customer‐employee interactions, and to discuss and test empirically the relative influence of five ISFs that interface with internal marketing strategies.

Empirical data were collected from a sample (n=202) of supermarket employees across a large metropolitan city. The data analysis used bivariate correlations, stepwise regression, and structural equation modelling.

The main research findings, from the employee perceptions of service quality, suggest that there are three main predictor variables, namely, service orientation, service role flexibility, and non‐standardised scripted behaviour. The most important internal service quality predictor variable is employees' service orientation attitude, followed by non‐standardised scripted service behaviour and third by the organisational policy to adopt and change (flexible) service roles.

The research needs to be expanded by investigating simultaneously the viewpoints about service quality by managers and actual consumers.

Retail marketing managers need to be mindful that ISFs have the potential to indirectly influence consumer perceptions through employee behaviours and perceptions of customers' needs. The five ISFs identified in this research can serve as a basis for differentiating a service brand.

The paper highlights the importance of five internal service success factors that influence service quality.