Comprehensive evaluations of cultural-tourism-oriented villages by meme mapping and tourist perception assessment: a comparative case study of two villages in Chaoshan region, China

Meme mapping and tourist perception assessment represent two critical analytical lenses in rural cultural tourism research. However, scholarly work that systematically integrates these two approaches remains limited, particularly for culture-led traditional villages in the Chaoshan region of southern China. This empirical research employs a mixed-method research design, combining cultural meme mapping and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based evaluation system for tourist perception assessment (ESTPA), to examine two representative culture-oriented tourism villages in the Chaoshan region. A five-dimensional analytical framework was applied to identify core cultural memes, whereas the ESTPA model constructed via experts’ voting, was applied to quantify tourist perceptions. Results indicate that Qianmei Village achieved a higher overall tourist perception score than Chengyanggang Village: the former excels in intangible cultural heritage and historic architecture, while the latter performs better in geographical layout and living local cultural vitality. Further detailed analysis demonstrates the influence of cultural meme endowment on tourist perception. Targeted sustainable tourism development strategies are proposed for each village. The results also provide empirical insights to support sustainable tourism planning and cultural heritage conservation for homogenous traditional villages.