During the window of opportunity of rural revitalization, with ecological enrichment as the engine and rural tourism as the lever, the coordinated development of rural tourism and ecology has become a high-quality pathway to empower rural revitalization. In this context, Yingshang County has utilized water resources to create a signature water-based ecotourism destination, effectively driving rural development. To analyze the practical situation of water-based ecotourism development in rural areas, the study takes the Huaihe River Tourism Corridor in this region as a case study. It is found that the countryside under the empowerment of water-ecological rural tourism has achieved certain economic and social benefits, but the empowerment still exists such practical problems as ineffective implementation of symbiosis and co-construction, weak cultural inheritance, and slow development of rural economy. Therefore, this study proposes a development approach of activating ecological potential, cultivating internal driving force and releasing economic vitality. By implementing strategies such as sharing water tourism, constructing cultural tourism and enriching leisure tourism, the aim is to achieve water-ecological rural tourism empowers rural revitalization with high quality.