Tourist cities are facing an ecological crisis due to population boom, pollution and environmental damage. To solve the crisis, this paper attempts to make an accurate evaluation of ecological carrying capacity of tourist cities, identify the factors affecting the ecosustainability of such cities, and prepare a feasible solution to these factors. Specifically, the tourism ecological footprint theory was introduced into the evaluation of sustainable tourism development in tourist areas based on SWOT analysis and eco-footprint model. Then, a tourist eco-footprint and ecological carrying capacity model was constructed for tourist cities. The model has seven sub-models: transportation, accommodation, shopping, leisure, catering, sightseeing and garbage disposal. The proposed model
was applied to quantify the tourism sustainability of Suijiang County, Yunnan Province. The results were discussed comprehensively, and then the strategies on sustainable tourism were put forward. The results show that the eco-footprint model can not only effectively analyze the eco-sustainability of tourism environment in poverty-stricken areas, but also put forward the strategy of tourism sustainable development.