As a significant axis of Chinese civilization, the Grand Canal carries rich artistic and tourism value. The digital design of canal tourism maps from the perspective of artistic geography represents both an inheritance and promotion of the artistic civilization contained in the canal and an innovative transformation of tourism maps in the digital communication environment. By analyzing the current state of research on the digital design of tourism maps, an approach that examined map design from a geographic perspective was proposed, while the tourism model innovation was explored from the perspective or art. The logical framework for integrating artistic geography into the digital design of tourism maps was outlined and the design process was constructed based on three aspects of "digital transformation of thematic content, digital reconstruction of spatial scenarios, and digital interactive narrative settings". This framework was applied to the digital design practice of the "Art Tour Canal" tourism map for the Jiangsu section, aiming to create a digital design work balancing artistry and practicality. Incorporating the principles of artistic geography into the digital design of canal tourism maps not only presents the artistic features along the canal in an engaging manner, but also enhances the efficiency of disseminating canal artistic civilization, providing new insights for the innovation of digital canal tourism map design.