Selecting 48 national-level rural tourism key villages in Shandong Province as the research samples, spatial analysis methods were employed to describe their spatial distribution characteristics and structural features, while the Geodetector, a quantitative analysis tool, was utilized to explore the mechanism of influencing factors. The results indicate that the rural tourism key villages in Shandong Province exhibit an aggregated distribution pattern, with an overall uneven distribution and a relatively concentrated distribution at the municipal scale, particularly clustering at municipal boundaries and along coastal areas. The spatial distribution of these key villages is jointly influenced by natural environment, transportation conditions, socio-economic factors, and resource endowments. Among them, socio-economic factors are the dominant ones affecting the spatial distribution of rural tourism key villages in Shandong Province.