The realization of coupled coordination between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency is an inherent requirement of the digital-real integration strategy and green transformation demands in the new era. This paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework for the coupling coordination between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency, and adopts multiple methods including the entropy method, undesirable output Super-EBM, nonparametric kernel density estimation, Markov chains (both traditional and spatial), and random forest regression to conduct empirical analysis. Specifically, based on the comprehensive measurement of the digital economy index and tourism eco-efficiency in Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2019, this paper further analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency. The results show that: (1) During the research period, both China"s digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency showed significant growth, presenting a regional distribution pattern gradually decreasing from east to west; meanwhile, the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency significantly improved, forming a regional difference of "eastern region > central region > western region". At the national scale, the distribution of the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency shows a concentration trend; the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency in the eastern region tends to be concentrated in distribution, while the central and western regions show multi-tier differentiation characteristics. (2) The coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency shows significant path dependence characteristics, making it difficult for provinces to achieve leapfrog growth in the short term, but it also has spatial spillover effects. When adjacent to provinces with high coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency, the probability of upward transition of the coupling coordination degree between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency in the local province is significantly improved. (3) The coupling coordination between the digital economy and tourism eco-efficiency is nonlinearly influenced by multiple factors, among which the contribution of socioeconomic factors is relatively large, while the contribution of policy factors is relatively small. Specifically, the marginal effects of influencing factors such as economic income, market demand, urbanization, and traffic level generally enhance and maintain stability at a relatively high level, while the marginal effect of government regulation shows an opposite trend. This research provides new theoretical support and practical insights for scientifically understanding the intrinsic relationship between the digital economy and tourism development, and for promoting the high-quality integrated development of the digital economy and the tourism industry.