Touristic ecological footprint is a method to quantitatively measure the sustainable development of tourism. It has important theoretical and practical value for comprehensive assessment of the ecological response of tourists to tourism destinations. The empirical study of touristic ecological footprint research analyzes the panel data of the CNKI from 2004 to 2017 with the method which is known as information visualized analysis software (CiteSpace), drawing the scientific knowledge maps of the authors, institutions, and Keywordsof the domestic touristic ecological footprint, and to explore the future development path and research direction by combing the development status of the research field. The results of our analysis show that: (1) The number of issued documents showed an overall growth trend, the number of authors for research has gradually increased, and the core research team has gradually become prominent, however, the research capabilities of various research institutions are far from each other. (2) The subject area covered in the study is relatively wide, and the features such as cross-disciplinarity, diversity, and comprehensiveness are obvious. (3) Tourism ecological footprint model, tourism ecological carrying capacity and sustainable tourism development are the core Keywordsin this research field. The dynamic evolution process of regional tourism ecological footprint and its driving mechanism, the versatility of tourism ecosystem services and the path of sustainable tourism development will be the research topics that need long-term attention in the future.