Taking 11 provinces (municipalities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object, this paper constructs an evaluation index system to measure the high-quality development of tourism industry based on five development concepts, applies methods such as kernel density values and exploratory spatial factor analysis to reveal the spatio-temporal evolution pattern of high-quality development level of tourism industry along the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2009 to 2021, and uses obstacle degree model to diagnose obstacle factors. The results show that the overall level of high-quality tourism development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows an upward trend, with significant variations among different provinces (cities). The spatial differentiation is significant, showing a high level in the east and a low level in the west, and the high-quality development level of tourism in each province (city) gradually increases over the study period, showing a trend of continuous expansion in space. Regional disparities in the high-quality development level of tourismare gradually diminishing. In terms of obstacle factors, the imbalance in innovation, opening up and coordination restricts the high-quality development of tourism in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.