Will I be back? Evoking nostalgia through college students’ memorable exchange programme experiences

Abstract

PurposeInternational exchange students have been known for an often-neglected population in tourism research and their intention to revisit the host country has not been explored. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among international exchange students’ memorable experiences, nostalgia, satisfaction and revisit intention.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from students (N = 169) with recent international exchange experience using snowball sampling approach through various online platforms. The hypothesised relationships were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsResults showed that memorable experiences had a positive effect on nostalgia and satisfaction, and nostalgia significantly affected satisfaction. Satisfaction was also found to have a positive effect on revisit intention. In addition, memorable experiences and nostalgia had indirect effects on satisfaction and intention to revisit a host country in the near future.Originality/valueThe findings of this study contribute to the extant literature on international exchange students’ experience and provide tourism marketers with strategies to encourage them to revisit a host country.