Cultural ecosystem service plays a pivotal role in bridging ecosystems and human well-being. Identification and assessment of the cultural ecosystem service functions have emerged as crucial prerequisite influencing the coordinated conservation and decision-making in regional ecosystem management. Due to its rich karst landscape resources, the Lijiang River Basin was included in the list of World Heritage Site in 2014. It also secured a position as one of the initially national innovation demonstration zones for sustainable development in order to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in China. The basin’s unique landscape resources offer diverse cultural ecosystem services, including tourism, leisure, spiritual healing, and ecological education. Consequently, these cultural ecosystem services have propelled the rapid growth of its ecosystem industry, emerging as a crucial pillar of socio-economic development in the Lijiang River Basin. However, the increasing demand for karst landscapes exacerbated the degradation of karst ecosystems. Thus, this study investigates public perceptions of cultural ecosystem service demand and analyzes the correlation between landscape diversity and public perceptions of cultural ecosystem service demand in the Lijiang River Basin. The exploration is conducted through nationwide and Lijiang River Basin-scale public questionnaire surveys. The findings reveal that: 1) in comparison to the watershed scale, the respondents at the national scale exhibit a higher demand for cultural services provided by the distinctive karst landscapes. 2) The respondents in the southwestern and southern regions of China manifest more prominent demand for landscape cultural services in the Lijiang River Basin; At the watershed scale, the respondents living in peripheral areas around Guilin City demonstrate a higher demand for cultural ecosystem services across various landscape types compared to those living in the central urban area of Guilin City. 3) The demographic factors exhibit pronounced influence in the perceived demand for cultural services of landscape diversity. At the national scale, gender and educational level do not significantly influence (P> 0.05) the cultural service demand perception in the Lijiang River Basin. However, at the watershed scale, the respondents’ occupation, monthly income, and other demographic factors show significant differences (P< 0.05) in their perceived demand for cultural ecosystem services among various landscapes. The study could help us to understand the demand for landscape cultural services in Lijiang River Basin among different scales, which contributes to guide landscape conservation planning and develop demand-oriented adaptive management measures. In the future, the targeted strategies for ecological tourism and landscape conservation can be developed based on survey results to achieve sustainable protection of Lijiang River Basin landscapes and human well-being.