Abstract: Tourism development is an important power to accelerate the urbanization in the western underdeveloped region of China. This paper first analyzes the formation of tourism-driven urbanization in the western underdeveloped region; then it uses Lijiang City as an example, discusses the urbanization development driven by the tourism; And then it summarizes the tourism-driven urbanization mode represented by Lijiang to tower model, which includes the ecological environment support, tourism resources unique, the tourism industry drivers and so on. Finally, it expounds the opportunities and challenges faced by tourism-driven urbanization.