MORE than 40 years ago a young woman from Toorak, Suva, thought it might be a good idea to begin a business in the tourism industry.
That plan immediately took flight, and the concept of providing service to tourists gradually transformed her company into a tourism giant, one that encompasses a tour company, award winning hotels, a rental car service, a tourism academy and a charter flight service to the booming Chinese travel market.
The company is Rosie Holidays and the woman behind the name — Rosie Whitton — is an icon in the local tourism industry.
Together with her husband, Roy, Rosie built a colossus that takes care of more than 150,000 visitors annually and employs more than 600 staff.
Despite the outstanding success of the company she helped build, Rosie shuns the limelight and keeps away from the media as much as possible. She prefers that accolades and praise be heaped on her staff instead.
But her best efforts to remain behind the scenes were thwarted when Government recognised Rosie for her contribution to the tourism industry by awarding her Officer of the Order of Fiji this year.
“It was a real honour to be in the presence of our President but to be very honest, receiving the award makes no difference to me,” the 82-year-old Lautoka resident shared.
“I am who I am and that will never change.
“People say a lot of things about me but I didn’t get here alone. I got here through the help and support of my husband and my family — my kin and the hundreds of workers at Rosie Holidays who I regard as my extended family.
“This has always been about them and never about me.”
Rosie’s humbleness comes across as warm and enveloping as her personality.
As we sat and chatted about how she single-handedly made the decision to travel from Suva to Nadi in the ’60s, one thing became evident. Rosie’s small frame belies her strength — as a mother, a woman and a pioneer.
She shared the struggles she went through when she decided to leave her then young son, Tony, in the care of relatives in Suva while she chased a dream to enter the then fledgling tourism industry in Nadi in the ’60s.
It was an emotional experience.
“I had to leave Tony with my Fijian family at Rifle Range in Vatuwaqa while I went to Nadi.
“And it was hard to let go of my little boy but it was something I had to do and in a way, I’m glad he spent time with them because the experience taught Tony some invaluable lessons.
“Tony has never forgotten his family and despite all the success that we have enjoyed over the years, they have always been first and foremost for him.”
Rosie’s love for family and people in general has rubbed off on her son. And so has her pioneering spirit.
From one tour desk at the Dominion Hotel (now the Mercure) in Martintar, Nadi, in 1975, Rosie Holidays has grown to become the biggest and most diverse service provider in the region.
However, it has never lost some of the core principles that Rosie instilled in the company.
“Tourism is about people. When you live in a country like Fiji and are surrounded by all these beautiful people, you just want to share that experience.
“And that’s what Rosie Holidays has always been about, that will never change.”
Early life
At a time when women were relegated to either fanning flames over a fire, nursing babies and confined to the communities they grew up in, Rosie decided to boldly venture from the comforts of her Toorak home to the wild west.
She pays tribute to her father for instilling business sense in her, a trait that helped Rosie deal with the different types of people she would encounter in the tourism industry.
“I was in Class 5 at St Anne’s Primary when he pulled me out of school and said I had to go and sell fish and chips at the Suva Market.
“My father was well-known as one of the best fish and chips makers in Suva.
“Later he set up a café called Boston, right opposite the New Lilac theatre on the corner of Waimanu and Toorak roads and it was very popular.”
It was probably while serving customers at the café that Rosie developed an interest in the hospitality sector.
This deepened when she landed her first job as a tour consultant with Hunts Travel.
“There were a couple of travel agents in the ’60s and Hunts Travel was the biggest. They had offices in Suva and Nadi.”
Her first job, however, came with a host of challenges.
“I tried out at a duty free shop at the Nadi International Airport owned by a guy called Colin Weaver but he turned me down.
“My next stop was Hunts Travel and they decided to give me a go.
“When I first went there and enquired after a job, they asked me if I could type and I said, ‘no I don’t’, and asked if I had worked in an office before and I said ‘no’.
“The lady in charge asked if I wanted to learn and I said ‘yes’.”
Her tentative first steps in the tourism industry began that day.
“From my first day at Hunts, I knew I had made the right decision.
“I just felt like the doors that had been closed to me for so long just suddenly opened.
“I met tourists coming in on different flights from all over the world and I just felt the need to tell them everything I knew about Fiji.
“I wanted to tell them about how the people were the friendliest and everything else that we had to offer.
“You know how you feel when you’re in a situation where you’re in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time — that was me.”
p Next Week: Read about how Rosie Holidays began from a single tour desk at the Dominion International Hotel (now Mercure) in Nadi.
