Abstract: In the context of promoting the effective linkage of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, it is of great significance to explore the poverty reduction effect and its mechanism of rural tourism on the poverty vulnerability of rural households, and it is critical to optimizing targeted poverty reduction policy and connecting rural revitalization strategy. Based on the poverty vulnerability theory and a household data of 22 rural tourism alleviation villages in Shaanxi Province, this study investigated the effects and mechanism of rural tourism on poverty vulnerability of rural households in western mountainous areas of China by the extended regression model (ERM). Results show that: 1) poverty vulnerability rate of tourism participants in samples areas was 29.58%, lower than that of non-participants. Participating in rural tourism significantly reduced the poverty vulnerability of rural households, and the reduction rate was 13.7%; 2) for the households near four-star tourism scenic sites and with tourism targeted assistances, participating in rural tourism had a significant effect on poverty vulnerability. In different forms of tourism participation, engaging in tourism operation activities had a greater effect on poverty vulnerability; and 3) rural tourism reduced poverty vulnerability through increasing household's income, while participating in tourism exacerbated the uncertainty of family's operating income, which did not help to decrease poverty vulnerability. Wage income per capita failed to play an active role in poverty vulnerability. In addition, livelihood diversification had a certain moderating effect on reducing the probability of trapping into poverty, more importantly, tourism together with agricultural production enhanced the effect of tourism participation on poverty vulnerability. Therefore, to consolidate the effects of tourism on the sustainable poverty alleviation, this paper provides some policy recommendations, including facing up to the vulnerability and income uncertainty of the rural tourism itself, strengthening sustainable tourism industrial development in impoverished areas, giving overall consideration to inclusive tourism poverty alleviation policies and targeted assistance measures, strengthening the integration of agriculture and rural tourism, and promoting an effective interest linkage mechanism.