Nostalgic tourism in Macau : The bidirectional causal relationship between destination image and experiential value

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of nostalgia in destination image, experiential value and their effect on subsequent behavioral intention. Nostalgic-themed tourism product is becoming popular in many countries. Design/methodology/approach – The survey used stratified sampling method to include respondents from all the nearby Asian regions. The sampling is based on the data of inbound tourists provided by the Department of Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of Government of Macau. The questionnaire consisted of five sections of 5-point Likert scale questions: nostalgia; destination image both before and after experience; expected value; experiential value; and future visit intention. Data were analysed with structural equation modeling. Findings – The result indicates that nostalgia plays an important part in forming destination image and experiential value before an individual had a chance to experience the destination. The destination image and experiential value share a bidirectional causal relationship that eventually contributes to future visit intention. The study also discovered that while experiential value is more effective in generating destination image, the later contribute more to future visit intention. Originality/value – The research design measures destination image and experiential value before and after respondents had experience the destination. The distinction between destination image and expected/experiential value can be examined because the longitudinal design of research method. It also allows this study to observe how nostalgia translates to future visit intention.