The relationship between tourist flow and tourism economic efficiency has been an important topic of research in the fields of tourism economics and tourism geography. Existing studies tend to treat them as independent subjects. In particular, few studies have investigated the spatial relationship between them. This paper aims to fill the research gap through a comprehensive analysis of inter-provincial inbound tourist flows. The paper first constructs a coupling framework between tourist distribution superiority and tourism economic efficiency. It then measures the comparative superiority and economic efficiency for the 31 provincial-level regions to reveal the temporal and spatial patterns. Several conclusions can be dawn as follows. First, inbound tourist distribution superiority shows significant differentiations at the provincial level. During the 11-year period of 2005-2016, relative superiority changed most significantly. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Sichuan have obvious advantages in attracting inbound tourists. Second, the average economic efficiency increased from 0.485 to 0.520, and the proportion of the 1st- and 5th-level provincial-level regions increased from 29.03% to 48.39%, indicating an obvious rise as well as a polarization trend. By 2016, an 'S'-shaped spatial distribution for high-level efficiency provinces had emerged. Third, the spatial relationship between distribution superiority and efficiency was altered. Specifically, the number of high-level and medium-level coordination (H-H and M-M) areas increased, while that of low-level coordination (L-L) areas decreased. Meanwhile, the number of imbalanced tourist destinations (H-L or L-H) increased. Fourth, tourist distribution superiority and tourism economic efficiency are two key variables that are closely interrelated. An imbalanced relationship between distribution superiority and efficiency affects the overall competitiveness of regional tourism. Thus it is suggested that more resources should be allocated to the weak coupling system to strengthen the relationship between tourist distribution superiority and economic efficiency. More importantly, varying strategies should be implemented for each tourist destination according to their coupling state.