Substance or setting? Visitor priorities across indoor creative markets in a historic urban area

Indoor creative markets are increasingly established through adaptive reuse. Understanding visitor priorities can guide their design and operation. This study compares 21 attributes across three markets in Yangzhou’s old city representing permanent conversion, permanent extension, and temporary activation. Using data from 633 visitor surveys, we combined explicit and implicit importance with relative satisfaction tiers in an integrated IPA–Kano analysis. Product originality, business-mix diversity, local products and intangible cultural heritage, and price fairness were core attributes in all three markets. Interactive activities were attractive attributes, while spatial legibility, accessibility, and ventilation were basic attributes. The remaining 13 attributes varied by case. Spatial and environmental quality provided a baseline for use, while commercial and cultural content offered greater scope to differentiate the visitor experience. The framework identifies shared requirements and case-specific improvement needs, prioritizing basic and core attributes with relatively low satisfaction.