Revisiting feeling rules: how emotional labour fosters emotional capital among hospitality and tourism interns in Macao

While emotional labour is well-established in hospitality research, existing scholarship predominantly focuses on established employees, largely overlooking how organisational novices navigate professional socialisation. Specifically, how liminal cohorts like interns manipulate organisational feeling rules to convert emotional labour into emotional capital remains underexplored. To address this gap, this qualitative case study examines 30 tourism undergraduates in Macao's high-intensity hospitality sector. Findings reveal that interns do not merely endure emotional labour; instead, they actively shift from defensive surface acting to strategic deep acting. By reframing emotional suppression as a necessary professional competence, interns survive strict hierarchical structures and accumulate valuable emotional capital. However, this crystallization of capital is paradoxical, offering professional empowerment at the cost of cognitive dissonance and self-commodification. Theoretically, this study advances Conservation of Resources theory by reconceptualizing emotional labour as a strategic investment rather than a mere psychological cost, highlighting the double-edged nature of emotional capital. Practically, it offers actionable implications for educators and managers to design mentorship programmes that mitigate intern self-alienation and foster sustainable workforce development.