Agricultural carbon emissions are a major source of global climate change. The new form of agricultural economy resulting from the deep integration of agriculture and tourism (IAT) provides an innovative solution for the low-carbon transformation of agriculture (LCTA). This study took the historical data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2022 as the observation sample, and used methods such as the two-way fixed effects model and the quantile model to examine the impact effect and mechanism path of IAT on agricultural carbon reduction. To synthesize the IAT index, we also employ gray relational degree, factor analysis method and entropy weight method. The research results show that the technological effect, labor substitution and green environmental protection awareness of IAT are conducive to improving the green productivity of agriculture and leading to LCTA. This result still holds true after eliminating endogeneity and conducting multiple robustness tests. However, the positive effect of IAT on carbon emission reduction is heterogeneous. The results of the nonlinear test show that in areas with low agricultural carbon emissions, IAT will play a stronger positive role, while the positive role it can play in areas with high carbon emissions is limited. The results of the mechanism test show that IAT will indirectly promote LCTA through channels that facilitate land transfer and the aggregation of agricultural labor force. This research is a beneficial exploration of agricultural carbon reduction in the context of addressing climate change. The results of this study are of guiding significance for accelerating the realization of sustainable development goal 13 (SDGs 13).