Tourism aesthetics constitute a fundamental attribute of tourism activities. Research on the influence of tourists’ aesthetic behavior has profound significance for a deeper understanding of the aesthetic character of tourism activities, for clarifying the mechanism of tourists’ aesthetic behavior, for setting a new tourism trend of “knowing beauty, appreciating beauty and advocating beauty,” and for exploring what is best in tourism development. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and cognition, this paper constructs a model of tourists’ aesthetic behavior intention (ABI) by adding tourists’ aesthetic and cognitive variables, and carries out an empirical study by using SEM method. The results show that: (1) tourists’ aesthetic cognition (AC) and aesthetic behavior attitude (ABA) have a positive effect on intended aesthetic behavior, with path coefficients of 0.399 and 0.335 respectively, indicating that AC is the key factor followed by ABA as a supporting factor; (2) tourists’ subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) play a leading positive role in ABA, with path coefficients of 0.444 and 0.362 respectively, indirectly influencing ABI through ABA.