Rural tourism, as a new business form in rural industries, has become an effective approach to addressing the “Three Rural Issues” (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers) and promoting integrated urban-rural development. The high-quality factors of rural tourism requires the dynamic synergy between endogenous and exogenous factors, with endogenous development being the key to achieving sustainable rural tourism and rural revitalization. The neo-endogenous development theory focuses on rural resource utilization, residents' participation, and local identity, making it inherently compatible with the high-quality development of rural tourism. Based on the three dimensions of subject synergy, resource integration, and spatial linkage, this paper constructs a practical dimension system and an analytical framework for neo-endogenous development in rural tourism. It then analyzes the dilemmas facing the neo-endogenous development of water-based ecotourism in the Lixiahe area, including the imbalanced participation among multiple stakeholders, insufficient exploitation of both internal and external resource values, and backwardness in technological application and smart upgrading. Accordingly, it proposes a threepronged optimization strategy: establishing a collaborative network grounded in the principle of “coconstruction, cogovernance, and shared benefits” to safeguard the dominant position of farmers; activating the composite value of internal and external resources to enhance industrial resilience; and leveraging technologyenabled “virtual-real integration” to expand the spatiotemporal boundaries of rural areas.