Abstract: Based on the panel data of 13 cities in Jiangsu Province from 2001 to 2014, this paper makes an empirical study on the relationship between tourism development and economic growth in Jiangsu by using the vector auto-regressive model (VAR). The main results are as follows:Firstly, taken as a whole, economic growth first has a positive and then a negative impact on domestic tourism and inbound tourism; Secondly, domestic tourism growth first has a negative and then a positive impact on economic development, while its impact on inbound tourism development varies with the existence of regional differences; In addition, inbound tourism growth generally has a positive impact on economic growth and domestic tourism development. The three cities mentioned above have different regional characteristics, which are in line with their periods of economic development and levels of tourism development. On the whole, the coordinated development between domestic tourism development, inbound tourism development and the level of economic development has not yet been achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the level of urban infrastructure construction and establish a perfect tourism market mechanism based on the level of regional economic development in the process of developing tourism.