The Pacific nation is famed for its idyllic white-sand beaches and relaxed, welcoming attitude. And it depends on the tourist dollars those features attract.

Fiji's economy took one of the biggest pandemic-related hits in the world last year, declining by 19 per cent and prompting the government to offer jobless people tools and cash to become farmers.

So it was with a sense of relief that officials greeted the first tourist flight from Sydney on Wednesday.

More flights from Australia and the US are scheduled in coming days.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said the resumption of tourism would help reignite the economy.

"Welcome to this very momentous day," he said. "We have been waiting for this day for the past 20 months."

Viljoen said the airline's health and safety measures had been designed to account for potential coronavirus variants, and it had put in place extra screening for Omicron to ensure passengers hadn't recently visited any high-risk countries.

He said the airline experienced some cancellations in recent days following media coverage of the new variant, which was first reported in South Africa last week, but they also had re-bookings and new bookings, resulting in little overall change.

Tourism Fiji chief executive Brent Hill said 75,000 tourists had booked travel to the country over the next couple of months and the group had launched a campaign fronted by actor Rebel Wilson.

Fiji was spared from the worst of the virus until April, when an outbreak of the Delta variant took hold.

The outbreak killed nearly 700 people but has now faded to about five new infections each day.

About 64 per cent of Fiji's population is fully vaccinated and 70 per cent have had at least one dose, according to research from Our World in Data.

Australian Associated Press