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)
