| Summary: | Consumers often seek in tourism a means to relive experiences and remarkable moments in their lives. Experiences lived in the past, guarded in memory, can create feelings of nostalgia that stimulate decisions and behaviors. This study identified dimensions through which memorable experiences provoke nostalgia in relation to tourism locations, influencing the intention of revisiting. Reports were collected from fifteen consumers, nominated by travel agents, which had experiences in tourism. In-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed based on phenomenology methods adapted for consumer research. Nostalgia surfaced as an important motivator in travel decisions. Nostalgic aspects can propel the search for sensations previously lived, however location attributes are not essential for that. Although some interviewees assumed that they may not return to the place previously visited, the memories of sensations lived there have an influencing and facilitating role in the intention of pursuing new travel experiences. They will seek to reproduce activities from the past related to the valorization of possessions, or experiences that remind that period, inducing the feeling that the present can reproduce the past. The results also suggest that consumer choices in traveling are not associated to processes generated by purely rational aspects, there being a distinct participation of an emotional component. Affective aspects related to nostalgia, triggered by memories of sensations lived when traveling, motivate the consumer to reproduce experiences and recommend travel destinations through social media and positive evaluations in sites and blogs related to traveling and tourism.
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