With the continuous development of China's economy and the accelerating process of urbanization, as of August 2021, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population reached 63.89%, and this process is accelerating. Urban residents are increasingly bored with the fast-paced, homogeneous urban life, giving birth to the "rural tourism" industry around the city. The barbaric development of the industry has led to a large number of urban tourists, putting the already fragile rural ecological environment under enormous pressure. The rise of the concept of sustainable tourism is in response to this environmental crisis. In order to explore the unsustainable status and causes of rural tourism, and how to analyze the system elements and operation mode of rural tourism ecological cycle from the perspective of circular economy, the research focus of this paper.