Taking Changsha city as the research object with its unique rural resources advantages, and with the help of such ArcGIS spatial analysis tools as nearest neighbor index, multi-distance spatial cluster analysis and kernel density analysis, a quantitative characterization can be achieved of the spatial distribution of star-level rural tourist attractions in Changsha city, thus constructing an evaluation index system of the rural tourism development level, followed by a measurement of the rural tourism development level of districts (counties, cities) in Changsha. Meanwhile the geographic detector is used for an analysis of the influencing factors of spatial differentiation of rural tourism development level in Changsha. Due to the significant differences in the development level of rural tourism among districts (counties and cities) in Changsha, the development level of its rural tourism is unbalanced in space, with the highest index of rural tourism development level in Liuyang City being 0.112, and the lowest comprehensive index of rural tourism development level in Ningxiang city only 0.068. The spatial differentiation of rural tourism development level in Changsha is the result of a variety of influencing factors, among which the resource endowment has a greater impact on its spatial differentiation of rural tourism development level, with the influence of any two factors enhanced after interaction, which shows that there is an significant barrel effect between the influencing factors of spatial differentiation of rural tourism development level in Changsha city.