When the Future Feels Closer Than the Past: An Experimental Research of Nostalgia Versus Forestalgia in Destination Ads

Abstract

Nostalgia has been a powerful tool for attracting travelers to visit tourism destinations. Compared to the extensive attention that nostalgia marketing has received, its counterpart of forestalgia (i.e., future-focused) marketing has received limited attention. The present research is one of the first to compare the effectiveness of nostalgia and forestalgia focused destination advertising messages in attracting travelers’ destination visit intentions. Across three experimental studies based on 665 responses from U.S. travelers, the research finds that forestalgia focused destination ads are more effective in enticing travelers compared to nostalgia focused ones. The findings also reveal a significant mediating role of positive emotions and moderating roles of temporal distance and future time perspective. Our research sheds light on extant literature about nostalgia marketing, construal level theory, Temporal Doppler Effect, and rosy effect. Managerial implications are provided to assist destination management organizations in better capitalizing on both past and future-focused marketing communications.