Abstract: Urban agglomeration is the highest spatial organization form when the city develops to maturity. In order to explore the coupling and coordinated development of the traffic-tourism industry-ecological environment in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the role of the three is verified by VAR model. The temporal and spatial variation trends of coupling degree and coordination degree are further analyzed between 2001 and 2017. The results show that: (1) There is a long-term equilibrium relationship between the traffic-tourism industry-ecological environment of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Traffic and ecological environment are mutually causal, and the tourism industry has a significant one-way causal relationship with the transportation and ecological environment. The three promote each other, but restrict each other. (2) The coupling and coordinated development of the traffic-tourism industry-ecological environment in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from 2001 to 2017 shows an upward trend, compared with the temporal and spatial changes of coupling degree and coordination degree of the 31 cities. It is found that most areas go from antagonistic and run-in states to coupling state, and from the middle and low coordination coupling stages to the highly coordinated coupling stage. However, the coordination degree lags behind the coupling degree. (3) There are regional differences in the coordinated development of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. From 2001 to 2017, the performance of Wuhan Metropolitan Area is better than that of the Urban agglomeration around Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan and the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration, and the development of coupling and coordination in a few central cities as Changsha and Nanchang is better than that of the surrounding areas. Finally, it is suggested that government departments should make great efforts to develop comprehensive transportation, achieve the joint prevention and control of ecological environment pollution, promote the integration and optimization of the elements of tourism resources across regions, and promote the healthy development of the relationship between the three.