Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating once famously said: “If you don’t live in Sydney, you’re just camping out.” It would seem that many agree with him.
The New South Wales capital was named “Australasia’s leading destination” at the 25th Annual World Travel Awards held in September 2018.
I’m always skeptical about these things, as industry awards are often driven by sentiment or “accepted wisdom” rather than cold facts.
It’s true that Sydney has the lion’s share of iconic Australian attractions (the Bridge, the Opera House, the Harbour), and therefore gets the most tourist traffic. So if by “leading” they mean most popular, then there’s no denying that.
As NSW Tourism Minister Adam Marshall pointed out: “In the year ending March 2018, Sydney again achieved its highest volume of international visitors, nights and expenditure on record exceeding the four million international visitor mark for the first time.”
When I’m abroad and people ask me where they should go in Australia, and they profess a preference for cities, I say Sydney, followed by Melbourne. That’s despite the fact that I’m from Brisbane (which is a very close third).
Sydney for the wow factor; Melbourne for the arts and dining scene. It’s as simple as that.
But Queensland is the place to go if it’s the outdoors experience you’re after, and I’m always going to recommend a trip to Brisbane, if it can be accommodated in an itinerary, because it has the hallmarks of a big city with a slightly more relaxed pace. It has the Great Barrier Reef, of course. And then there’s the Northern Territory for Uluru and Kakadu, with some of the madness of Darwin thrown in for good measure.
I haven’t spent a lot of time in Western Australia, and in many ways to me it’s a different country, best seen separately from the rest. From Perth to Broome and beyond, there’s a lot to see.
Tasmania, too, is a place that deserves at least a week of its own on any itinerary — a drive around the island state is rewarded with great cultural and natural rewards — with a few days in the Adelaide hills thrown in, if only to stock up the wine cellar.
Put simply: Any overseas tourist who expects to see both east and west coasts — plus the Red Centre — either has a lot of time on their hands or has greatly underestimated the size of the country.
Oh, and since the award was for Australasia, it’s worth noting that New Zealand, too, has many great tourist attractions — and it comes in a compact size. From the modern urban amenity of Auckland to the glaciers of the far South, you can see a lot in a few weeks.
