Fiji’s deputy prime minister issues message to Australians after flight crew allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed

Fiji’s deputy prime minister has called an alleged attack on two Virgin Australia crew members shocking but “rare”.

A Fijian man is being questioned by police over the alleged sexual assault of a female crew member - who is believed to have been attacked after a night out for New Year’s Eve in tourist hot spot Nadi.

Her male colleague was also allegedly assaulted and left with facial injuries.

Locals say he had left the bar to look for his colleague when he was lured 200 metres down the road and robbed.

In an interview with 7NEWS in Nadi, Deputy PM Bill Gavoka said he was sad to hear of the alleged crime, but wanted to assure Australians the country remained safe to travel to.

“Fiji is safe. I was shocked, I was quite devastated when I heard about it,” he said.

“From me, as Minister for Tourism and Deputy Prime Minister, I can assure you that the whole community in Fiji is very sad about this case, and the determination is there that we will do everything possible to ensure nothing like this happens again.”

Gavoka said tourism made up 40 per cent of Fiji’s GDP, with Australians making up the majority of their visitors.

“Thankfully, Australians love Fiji very well - you are our number one source of visitors and the repeat factor is very, very high,” he said.

“There are people who have been here 100 times. So the profile of Fiji is very strong in Australia.”

Local man Chris, who runs the bar where the Virgin crew had been partying, also stressed the area was safe for tourists.

“Fiji is still the same as it was before - but just like any other country there’s always going to be some dark spots,” he said.

“It is so unfortunate what happened here but rest assured, it did not happen at our establishment.”

The Virgin crew members had been told to stay in their hotel since Wednesday - but returned home on Friday.

A Melbourne woman who was at the same hotel on New Year’s Eve has told 7NEWS staff warned her and her partner about going out.

“They just said ‘no, stay in the resort’.

“They were genuinely concerned.”