Today marks the 87th birthday of the late Emosi Yee Show who passed away in 2021.
His name radiates in the annals of Fijian hospitality and adventure travel. A visionary entrepreneur, whose passion and warmth of spirit helped transform Levuka, Fiji’s old capital into a vibrant, backpackers haven.
More than a place to lay one’s head, the Old Capital Inn (established in 1977) became the beating heart of Fiji’s backpacking movement. Under Emosi’s stewardship it offered more than affordable beds: it offered a living, breathing classroom of Fijian song, dance, and legend.
Raised in Kadavu into a culture defined by generosity and community, Emosi saw something extraordinary in the simple traveler’s rucksack: not just a bundle of belongings, but a vessel carrying dreams, stories, and the promise of cross-cultural friendship. In the early 1980s, when few dared to tread beyond the Coral Coast, Emosi threw open the doors of the Old Capital Inn—a modest guesthouse in Levuka whose every corner bore the imprint of his care.
Emosi’s pioneering spirit reached beyond the walls of his inn. Everywhere he went, he carried with him an infectious grin, a song on his lips, and an invitation to “come walk with me”—to discover that the true treasure of travel is the people we meet along the way.
Visitors aka vulagi, joined raucous evening sing-alongs on the beach and forged friendships that crossed oceans and time zones. The parties he hosted on Leleuvia, just offshore from Ovalau were legendary. He secured the island in the late 1980s and developed it as an eco-camp for Old Capital Inn guests.
He also brought tourism to Levuka’s sleepy shore in a manner that it never saw before.
Emosi’s legacy is a generation of travelers who fell in love with Fiji not as tourists, but as friends.
Suzie told me of the time she was driving from Auckland to Huntly to spend my university break with an aunt. It was the late 80’s, and enroute, I picked up 2 female hitchhikers who managed to squeeze into her Morris mini with their backpacks. They got talking. They were German and had just visited Fiji. They had lots of questions on finding out she was Fijian. “Where are you from in Fiji?”, she asked Suzie. “Levuka”, was her response. “Oh we visited there,” they said. “Do you know Emosi?” Yes, indeed said Suzie. “He’s my dad!”
Small world indeed.
As we pay tribute to Emosi Yee Show, we remember not only the man who pioneered backpacking tourism in Fiji, but the generous soul who taught us how to open our hearts as readily as we open our wallets.
