Quantity and Scarcity of Tourist Attractions: A Multidimensional Analysis of Tourism Highway Accessibility in Shanxi Province, China

Tourism accessibility is critical for regional development, yet traditional research overlooks the heterogeneity of attractions, resulting in resource misallocation and suboptimal tourist experiences. This study addresses this gap by integrating the term frequency–inverse document frequency algorithm into measuring tourism highway accessibility (distance, time, and cost) using point of interest (POI) data in Shanxi Province, China. The analysis of the proposed tourism highway accessibility metrics reveals that urban cores exhibit high POI‐weighted accessibility but low scarcity value, and peripheral regions with unique attractions face significant accessibility penalties due to inadequate infrastructure and spatial marginalization. Although the increase in POI quantity can enhance accessibility, the effectiveness was limited when considering the scarcity. Per capita GDP and the proportion of the tertiary industry are important in influencing accessibility. The findings support prioritizing transportation infrastructure development in regions with scarce attractions to enhance accessibility, while promoting differentiated attraction development in areas saturated with homogeneous ones.