Check out this fan video of Cody Simpson performing at Warringah Mall in Sydney.
Sydney was voted the world's number one city in the Conde Nast Traveler Reader's Choice Awards held last night in New York.
NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris said Sydney has beaten tough competition from cities such as New York, Paris and Cape Town to take out the influential award.
It's the second major international award for the Harbour City with Sydney having been named the world's best festival and major events city by the International Festival and Events Association just last week.
"Winning this latest award demonstrates Sydney's position as a world leading destination and the gateway to Australia. It's a vote of confidence not by travel writers or agents, but by ordinary travellers.
"By definition, this makes us Australia's leading tourism and events city and will help the Government in its quest to restore NSW to its position as the nation's premiere state," Mr Souris said.
More than 8 million votes were cast in the Awards with readers rating cities according to ambience, friendliness, lodging, restaurants, culture, sight-seeing and shopping. "The many readers of Conde Nast Traveler have given Sydney the top spot in their Awards with a score of 85.1, ahead of the next highest scoring city - Florence (85.0).
"With its mix of world class events, cultural activities, stunning natural attractions and top-end food and shopping, Sydney and NSW continues to satisfy its visitors.
"NSW is Australia's number one destination for international and domestic visitor numbers, visitor nights and visitor expenditure," Mr Souris said.
Sydney hotels have also received award accolades at the ceremony, with 11 of the top 15 hotels in the Oceania region being from Sydney. The top hotel in Oceania goes to the Observatory Hotel Sydney (scoring 91.1) with another - the Sydney Harbour Marriott in Circular Quay, The Westin Sydney and Establishment Hotel Sydney also in the top five.
"It's encouraging to see so many of our excellent hotels recognised by world-wide travellers. They certainly deserve recognition and have helped to put Sydney in the top spot," Mr Souris said. He pointed out that Conde Nast Traveler readers are mostly based in North America.
"As one of our largest international tourism markets, North America is worth more than $516 million to the NSW economy. This expenditure includes overnight and day trip expenditure.
"Recognition at these awards will further raise our profile among potential travellers and will help the Liberals and nationals Government fulfil its pledge to significantly boost the State's economy," Mr Souris said.
Mr Souris said the Conde Nast Traveler poll follows a number of recent global awards for Sydney, reiterating its status as one of the world's best cities.
These include:
- International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) Sydney was declared the world's best festival and event city for the second year in a row, winning the IFEA World's Best Festival and Event City Award 2011
- TripAdvisor has listed Sydney at number two on its annual Travelers' Choice Destination 2011 awards - ahead of global cities including Paris (4), New York (6) and London (8)
- Cruise International Awards Sydney was recognised as the Cruise Destination of the Year in 2011
- Lonely Planet's 700,000 Facebook and Twitter global followers named Sydney as one of the world's best summer cities.
(Source: travmedia.com)
BridgeClimb Sydney has celebrated their 13th anniversary with songs from the summit of the Sydney Harbour Bridge by Australia's leading choral organisation, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.
The Choir's beautiful serenade rang through the air from 134 metres above Sydney Harbour as they sang the 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 'Happy Birthday'.
In a double celebration, one lucky Climber who shares the same birthday as BridgeClimb, David Lawrence from Epping, was surprised with a very unique 50th celebration as the choir welcomed him to the summit in song.
David climbed with his wife Elizabeth and two children Clare, 14 and Nick, 13, having received the BridgeClimb experience as a surprise for his special day.
"Being surprised with a BridgeClimb for my 50th was one thing, but getting serenaded at the summit was another experience altogether, and will be a birthday I will never forget!" David said.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs also had a reason to celebrate; the 500 strong chorister body has recently celebrated their 90th anniversary. Over the years Philharmonia has performed with Pavarotti and Barbra Streisand, sung on film sound tracks such as Happy Feet, at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and in the London Proms in 2002 and 2010. Regularly appearing in concert with the Sydney Symphony, Philharmonia welcomes new members throughout the year.
"It's a privilege and delight to help our friends at Bridgeclimb celebrate their birthday" said chorister Dr Carolyn Lowry who has been singing with Philharmonia for 22 years.
"Both our award-winning organisations are unique, strive for excellence and both make an important contribution to the cultural life of Sydney. What better way to celebrate nine decades of choral singing and the Bridge's 13th birthday than by singing on top of the Bridge overlooking our sensational city?"
Over the past thirteen years BridgeClimb has made remarkable developments from the initial Day Climb, with Climbers now having the choice to experience a Dawn, Day, Twilight or a Night Climb. Climbers also now have the choice between three Climbs; The Bridge Climb, The Discovery Climb and The Express Climb.
BridgeClimb are currently in preparations for the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on March 19th, 2012, with celebrations to pay homage to the famous coathanger and the heroes of its past and present.
Whether it is watching the city awake, capturing the energy of the city during the day, taking in the romance of twilight, or the city at night, BridgeClimb offers a unique and memorable Sydney experience. For booking enquiries call (02) 8274 7777 or book online at www.bridgeclimb.com
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au
HALL & OATES
Featuring Special Guest ICEHOUSE
DINNER & SHOW PACKAGE
HALL & OATES, the pioneers of rock 'n' soul, return to perform at the
Sydney Entertainment Centre.
These two legendary trail-blazers will be joined for this show with Australia's beloved
and most revered act, ICEHOUSE.
Racking up a phenomenal 34 American Billboard chart-hits during their peak success, the Hall & Oates hit making machine will be attuned to firing up their long-time fans on the night. And where to even start with all those hits.... Rich Girl, Kiss On My List, Private Eyes, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do), Maneater, Out Of Touch, along with Sara Smile, One On One, You Make My Dreams and She's Gone are just some of the timeless classics from their comprehensive career.
The Sydney Entertainment Centre will be offering a pre-dinner show package consisting of a 3 course dining experience along with premium seating to compliment this double headlining concert. This package will provide you with access and exclusive use to a private function room featuring live music entertainment on the night.
Also included is a beer, wine and soft drink package, souvenir lanyard, along with your
GOLD ticket for $240.00 per person.
Click here to view the seating chart
* Reserved seats are in the first few rows of Sections 8, 9 or 10
to book call 02 9320 4200 or email
Taronga has recently opened an exciting new boardwalk putting visitors eye to eye with the Himalayan mountain goats while providing spectacular views of Sydney Harbour.
The countdown is on for Celebrity Cruises’ first ship to hit Australian waters this November. Celebrity Century will home port in Sydney for the Australian summer before making way for her big sister Celebrity Solstice in the summer of 2012-13.
“There’s no greater substantiation for the interest in this market than the investment the company’s (RCI) making in the largest and most modern cruise ship ever to call Australia home which will be in the summer of 2012-2013,” said Gavin Smith, managing director Celebrity Cruises Australia.
President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, Dan Hanrahan, flew into Sydney last week ahead of the deployment to speak with Australian media and agents about the Celebrity offering and sang the praises of the land down under.
Mr Hanrahan expressed his long-term goal to have more than one ship home port in Sydney during the summer but recognised that improvements need to be made to the Sydney port situation in order to achieve this.
Highlighting the economic benefits to NSW as a whole, Mr Hanrahan expects over $1 million in revenue to be generated per day that a Celebrity ship visits Sydney.
“The port has some interesting opportunities ahead of it…if the port can figure out how to accommodate large ships as well as small ships, the beneficiary of that will be the greater Sydney area and NSW in general.”
Whilst having a good port infrastructure is important, Mr Hanrahan explained that something simple can always be effective. He cited the port in Hamburg, Germany as an example which was constructed out of shipping containers for the recent inaugural sailing of Celebrity Silhouette and reiterated that the line can work within the conditions provided to them.
Taking time out to speak with e-Travel Blackboard prior to his Sydney media briefing, Mr Hanrahan cleared up the confusion recent comments caused regarding tipping on board.
With tipping included as a line item when booking a cruise, Mr Hanrahan explained that his comments were in relation to educating Australian cruisers about the amounts allocated per staff member, not about how to tip in general.
“When I saw that article I was mortified. I would have to be really dumb to say something like that, or very arrogant and I’d like to think I was neither.”
(Source: eTravelblackboard, August 2011)
NSW tourism leaders are urging the Government to move forward with a second airport in Sydney, despite Sydney Airport experiencing a 1.4 percent drop in domestic arrivals over July this year compared to the last.
Tourism Industry Council New South Wales (TICNSW) executive officer Andrew Jefferies explained that passenger movements and low-cost carrier growth into NSW indicated a need for a second airport.
According to a report compiled by Tourism Futures International for Destination NSW, up to 42.6 percent of holiday visitors and 43 percent of total international arrivals into Australia flew into Sydney over the past ten years.
Of visitor arrivals Sydney welcomed a 0.7 percent growth over the decade and its residents departing overseas rose by 5.4 percent per annum.
Meanwhile Mr Jefferies said the city could be doing better but it is missing out passenger opportunities because it only caters to ten percent of the low-cost carriers flying into Sydney compared to Melbourne which welcomes 15 percent, Perth 29 percent and Brisbane 20 percent.
“Low Cost Carriers drive growth in passenger movements and benefit the local economy in so many ways,” Mr Jefferies explained.
“Sydney is clearly missing out on its share of the LCC market and a second Sydney Airport would be a catalyst for economic growth in our State.”
Earlier today Sydney Airport released its passenger movements over July, with a 1.4 percent drop over the month this year compared to the last while international arrivals increased by 2.7 percent.
The strong Aussie dollar is keeping Aussies from travelling domestically, according to Sydney Airport owners, MAp, with results for last month indicated that only 2,056,000 domestic travellers passed through the major airport compared to 2,085,000 during the corresponding period last year.
Despite the drop, domestic travel for the year maintained a 0.9 percent growth to 13.8 million compared to 13.67 million during the first seven months of last year.
MAp chief executive Kerrie Mather explained that domestic figures were affected by the grounding of Tiger Airways, while international outbound and Asian markets performed well over the period.
“Sydney recorded a small decrease in traffic during July, with pleasing growth in the international market offset by a weaker domestic market, where the temporary grounding of Tiger Airways impacted traffic by approximately 5 percentage points,” Ms Mather said.
“Despite the modest headline rate, July 2011 was the best July on record for international traffic at the airport, with growth driven by ongoing airline capacity increases, in particular from Asian carriers and Qantas.”
(Source: eTravelblackboard, 19th August 2011)
Sydney, August 16, 2011 - Open your eyes to a whole new experience as the Sydney Tower Eye launches this September.THE DETAILS:
What: Sydney Tower Eye opening in September 2011
When: Friday, September 23rd
Opening hours: 9.00am-10.30pm
Enquiries: +61 2 9333 9222
