ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the profound cause and mechanism of tourism motivation by examining employees' work experiences using a mixed‐methods design. Building on alienation accounts, the quantitative study illustrates and the qualitative study explicates that the interaction between work overload and alienating features of work, such as autonomy deprivation, work atomization, and employee substitutability, results in occupational stress. Then, employees consciously alienate themselves from work to protect themselves from occupational stress, gain a sense of autonomy, and perform boundary management. Cumulative alienation from work results in alienation from self through four approaches: identity disruption, impaired social functioning, loss of purpose and meaning, and diminished self‐perception and self‐worth. Finally, employees develop a strong tourism motivation to mitigate anxiety caused by alienation because they believe tourism provides them with thorough detachment, deep reflection, and absolute autonomy that nourish authentic happiness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Yu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.