With the advancement of rural revitalization strategy, the issue of sustainable development of characteristic towns has received wide attention in recent years. Based on the survey data of 305 tourists and town residents in the characteristic towns in Anhui Province, a structural equation model is used to empirically test and analyze the factors influencing the sustainable development of the characteristic towns. The study analyzes the sustainable development of the characteristic towns from three perspectives: sustainability of industry, sustainability of environment and resources, and sustainability of governance and organizational mechanisms, and the results show that: tourist satisfaction positively promotes the sustainability of governance and organizational mechanisms of the characteristic towns; the role of publicity in the sustainable development of the characteristic towns is not significant; the regional economic status positively promotes the sustainability of industry, environment and resources, and governance and organizational mechanisms of the characteristic towns. Based on this, it is suggested to create a characteristic town with high satisfaction, develop publicity planning, and focus on characteristic industries for promoting its sustainable development.