Guilin institute of tourism was founded in 1985, formerly known as guilin institute of tourism. 1994 was renamed Guilin Tourism College; In 20 15, it was upgraded to guilin institute of tourism, which is one of the earliest independent full-time public tourism undergraduate colleges in China.

The school is the only key supporting unit established by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in Chinese mainland, and it is a member of its Education Committee, a member of the World Tourism Alliance, an "excellent partner for training high-end tourism talents" of the Asian Development Bank and a "five-star alliance" of China Tourism Institute. It is the carrier unit of China-ASEAN tourism talent education and training base and china tourism academy ASEAN tourism research base. It is the initiator of China-ASEAN Tourism Education Alliance (CATEA) and its secretary-general unit, a national-level continuing education base for professional and technical personnel, the only university that has won the "National Training Base for Poverty Alleviation through Tourism", a national training base for academic travel instructors, the first batch of academic travel for young people from Hong Kong and Macao, a small highland for talents in Guangxi tourism industry, a carrier unit of Guangxi tourism data center, a Guangxi red culture and tourism research base, and a Guangxi postdoctoral innovation practice base.

The school now has two campuses, Yanshan and Kailuan, with a total campus area of 1 257,200 square meters (hectares). It is an application-oriented tourism undergraduate college with distinctive characteristics.