GFC not the only reason for a drop in Sydney Tourism

In the two years since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), tourism to Sydney has dropped by 3.5 per cent. Sydney is a long way from the rest of the world and with less money in people’s pockets, they seem to be reluctant to spend it coming to Sydney. Domestic tourism has also fallen. With the rise of the Aussie dollar, Australians can now enjoy more bang for their buck by traveling overseas. The United States gets you a real value holiday. Australians are even using their holidays to go to the annual Macy’s sale to save even more. And there’s no doubt Sydney is expensive, a cup of coffee will usually set you back $3.50.

View of Sydney Harbour Bridge from the north pylon.

Sydney ranks 24th on the Worlds ‘cost of living scale,’ higher than Barcelona, Dublin or even New York. It’s cheaper to go to the movies in London or New York than it is in Sydney and a liter of milk costs twice as much in Sydney than it does in New York.

So where is everyone going? The number one tourist destination is France followed by America, sliding up the ladder is Malaysia which has reached the top ten. Believe it or not, another region bucking the trend is the Middle East, so even though images from our television might be telling us one thing, tourism figures are telling us another. The strong Aussie dollar and the weak US dollar has everyone going. And not just to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but Qatar with billions of dollars spent on new hotels and airport facilities. Even Oman in getting in on the action.

So if perceptions of violence are being ignored in the Middle East try typing ‘tourist bashed’ in Google and the first things to pop up are reports of violence against tourists in Sydney. The good news? At least there’s an app. Tourism Australia has released a free iPhone app to coincide with the forthcoming Ashes series this summer. It might be the beginning of a new trend.