Rural tourism is an important engine for rural revitalization, and relevant government policies are a solid guarantee for realizing rural values. This paper takes 54 rural tourism policy texts at the national level from 2006 to 2020 in China as the research object, constructs a two-dimensional analysis framework of policy instruments and rural values, and uses the content analysis method to scientifically explore the institutional effect and evolution characteristics of rural tourism policies in China. The findings are as follows. (1) The policy evolution can be categorized into three distinct phases based on the volume of policy issuance: the Germination Phase (2006—2014), the Exploration Phase (2015—2017), and the Surge Phase (2018—2020). From the Germination Phase to the Surge Phase, the use frequency of supply-oriented policy instruments and demandoriented policy instruments has gradually increased, and the national rural tourism policies have gradually attached more importance to the ecological and cultural values of rural development. (2) Existing rural tourism policies predominantly rely on environmental-type policy instruments, followed by supply-oriented instruments, with demand-oriented instruments being the least utilized. ( 3) Policy content is primarily oriented toward enhancing production value and living standards, while attention to ecological and cultural values remains relatively limited. Therefore, how to make appropriate institutional arrangements and properly use policy instruments to tap the development value of rural areas is a critical issue for the high-quality development of rural tourism.