Tourism, a key driver of regional economies and perceived “green industry,” faces challenges from irrational resource allocation and spatial overlaps, undermining sustainability. This study examines 825 tourism resources in China’s Hulunbuir Grassland, analyzing spatiotemporal patterns, influencing factors, and ecological impacts using GPP and NDVI data. Three development phases emerged: essential development, rapid growth, and upgrading. They present a spatial pattern with Hailar and Chen Barag as the center, and multiple other points, mainly affected by ethnic minority population proportions, tourist reception, tourist attraction density, and river networks. Ecological analysis reveals that tourism-induced disturbances cause less environmental stress than other human activities, with grassland NDVI in tourism areas improving during upgrading. However, the NDVI of grasslands under non-tourism disturbance is still superior to that of grasslands under tourism disturbance. The findings emphasize the need for optimized resource allocation and proactive monitoring of tourism’s ecological footprint to advance sustainable grassland tourism.

Tourism development in ecologically fragile areas faces the dual challenge of promoting economic growth while safeguarding environmental sustainability. Taking Inner Mongolia as a case study, this paper examines the spatiotemporal evolution, spatial resilience, and driving factors of A-level tourist attractions from 2005 to 2023. By integrating the Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN), Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), Standard Deviational Ellipse (SDE), and Geodetector methods, the study reveals three main findings. First, the tourism system has shifted from extensive quantitative expansion to intensive quality improvement, with the grade structure evolving from a pyramid-shaped distribution toward a more olive-shaped pattern. During 2019–2023, the spatial structure exhibited resilient stability and maintained a relatively mature polycentric pattern characterized by “one core and two sub-centers”. Second, the overall distribution of tourist attractions consistently followed a northeast–southwest orientation shaped by the regional geographical framework, while also showing increasing lateral diffusion into surrounding hinterland areas. Third, the driving factors displayed marked regional heterogeneity. Western Inner Mongolia followed an oasis-based development pattern, mainly associated with tertiary-industry GDP and public cultural facilities; eastern Inner Mongolia exhibited a resource-based, accessibility-constrained pattern, shaped primarily by topography and transport conditions; and central Inner Mongolia showed a coordinated support pattern supported by infrastructure, service capacity, and population concentration. Interaction analysis further suggests a landscape-embedded culture–nature coupling effect, in which the combined influence of topography and cultural facilities is more strongly associated with the spatial differentiation of tourist attractions than single factors alone. These findings provide a useful reference for differentiated spatial governance and sustainable tourism planning in ecologically fragile border regions.