Evaluation of Tourism Development Efficiency Using Multisource Sensor Data: A Case Study in China

The evaluation of tourism efficiency is crucial for regional economic development.However, conventional methods rely on low-dimensional statistical data that fail to capture the industry's complex and high-resolution dynamics.Therefore, a new tourism efficiency evaluation system was developed in this study, utilizing multisource sensor data, including satellite remote sensing (Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2), mobile phone signal trajectories, and points of interest data.We applied a three-stage data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist index to 11 cities in Jiangxi Province (2013-2019).The results showed that while the average comprehensive technical efficiency declined from 0.776 to 0.718 (representing 71-78% of the optimal level), the total factor productivity (TFP) increased at an average annual rate of 22.2% (TFP index = 1.222).This increase was driven by technological progress, with an average technological change index of 1.242.A significant contribution of this study to sensor technology is the establishment of a standardized data fusion method achieving a spatial coverage completeness of more than 95%, enabling high-resolution (1 × 1 km 2 grid) spatiotemporal monitoring.These findings prove that integrating multisource sensor networks offers superior analytical depth for identifying bottlenecks in scale efficiency and optimizing regional resource allocation.