Abstract: The understanding of the relationship between online attention and tourism attractiveness in protected areas is crucial for promoting their high-quality development. With Wuyishan National Park as the research object, this study integrates multi-platform online search indices and socio-economic data from 31 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) from 2022 to 2024. By employing a comprehensive approach that includes the global entropy method, a modified gravity model, the coupling coordination degree model, and machine learning techniques (XGBoost+SHAP), it explores the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors of the coupling coordination between public online attention and the tourism attractiveness index. The findings indicate: (1) Both online attention and the tourism attractiveness index exhibit significant spatial differentiation. The former shows a core-periphery gradient decreasing outward from Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, while the latter highlights the tourism source advantages of developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. (2) The evolution trends of the coupling coordination degree based on the tourism attractiveness index align closely with those based on actual tourist numbers (81% of provinces have a rank difference of ≤3), confirming the validity of using macro attractiveness indicators to assess coupling coordination relationships at the provincial level. (3) The national coupling coordination degree is generally low, with only Fujian Province maintaining a state of good coordination for three consecutive years. Other provinces experience varying degrees of imbalance, ranging from slight to extreme. Over the three years, most provinces have stable coupling coordination degrees, although some, such as Shaanxi, Chongqing, and Henan, exhibited short-term fluctuations following the implementation of the "Class B, Category B" management policy in 2023. (4) Spatial distance (negative impact) and total GDP (positive impact) are the primary factors affecting the coupling coordination between online attention and tourism attractiveness, with the total volume of telecom services also exerting a consistent positive influence. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the "cognition-behavior" spatial relationship within national park tourism systems and provide valuable insights for the high-quality ecological protection and tourism development of Wuyishan National Park.