Spatiotemporal Evolution of Tourism Eco-Efficiency in Major Tourist Cities in China

Tourism development consumes ecological resources to varying extents while bringing economic benefits; tourism eco-efficiency (TEE) assessment has thus become an area of major focus in destination sustainability research. This paper intends examine the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors changes 36 tourist cities on Chinese mainland from 2010 2019, using a super-slacks-based measure (SBM) model, data envelopment analysis (DEA)–Malmquist index, spatial correlation, regression analysis. In contrast previous work, this work explores TEE among China by considering undesirable outputs carbon emissions sewage. The results show that (1) most during study period was low but increasing; there were significant differences different cities, same city fluctuated over time. (2) globally uncorrelated, low-eco-efficiency areas adjacent each other formed agglomerates, enhancing negative spillover effect. (3) Despite fluctuations, Malmquist indices exhibited positive trends, which resulted technical progress index rather than efficiency index. (4) Socioeconomic significantly promoted TEE. research reveals evolutionary law urban scale impact social TEE, can provide reference for policymaking enrich sustainability.