<![CDATA[This review examines the mediating role of brand authenticity in the correlation between historical nostalgia and destination brand equity in heritage tourism in Banda Aceh. Aceh holds tremendous potential for historical nostalgia layers of Islamic civilization, colonial heritage, and the struggle for independence but this historical potential has not been fully converted into sustainable brand equity. Drawing on Social Identity Theory, which holds that individuals derive a sense of identity from the social groups they identify with, the study argues that nostalgia for a shared past strengthens perceived authenticity, which in turn supports destination brand equity. A quantitative explanatory approach with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 4 software was used in to perform this analysis. A sample of 238 domestic tourists was collected through purposive sampling from 28 heritage tourism sites in Banda Aceh City. Historical nostalgia was measured using the Marchegiani & Phau, scale, brand authenticity through the three dimensions of Chen et al., , and destination brand equity using the Konecnik & Gartner, framework. The Estimation of Higher-order constructs were carried out using the Two-Stage Approach. The test results confirmed three hypotheses: historical nostalgia has a positive and significant effect on brand authenticity (β = 0.673; p < 0.001); Brand authenticity has a positive and significant effect on destination brand equity (β = 0.248; p < 0.001); and brand authenticity mediates the effect of historical nostalgia on destination brand equity (β = 0.167; p < 0.001). These findings demonstrate that historical nostalgia does not directly affect brand equity but must first undergo the formation of authenticity perceptions. The research gap was addressed in this study, by examining the Indonesian heritage tourism literature that has not integrated historical nostalgia and brand authenticity as antecedents of destination brand equity in a comprehensive causal model.]]>
