Sydney prepares for GCC rush

Etihad Airways laun-ched its inaugural Abu Dhabi-Sydney service on March 26, which will go to daily on June 29, and Emirates, which already operates double daily flights from Dubai to Sydney is planning to introduce a four-times-daily service when air rights permit.

“Etihad will bring in an additional 18,000 passengers to Australia each year,” explained Ian Cameron, manager, international marketing for Tourism New South Wales.

“We expect them to deliver and look forward to working with them.”

To gear up for more GCC visitors, Tourism NSW has created fact sheets providing infomation on Muslim Services in Sydney (such as mosques and prayer rooms); Halal restaurants; shopping hotspots; apartments; as well as family activity ideas.

“We will distribute these to travel agents in the Gulf and could also make them available in a flyer format for Sydney hotels,” explained Jayne Fisher, group assistant – international markets, Tourism NSW.

Cameron said he would spend another three years “heavily promoting Sydney” to the GCC market before pushing the activities the remainder of NSW has to offer: “We will start off promoting day trips to the Blue Mountains or dolphin-watching at Port Macquarie, for example,” he said.

“But at the moment, we are not satisfied that the agents in the Gulf have a grasp of what Sydney has to offer and so we are breaking down the resistance. We are still viewed as a corporate city, but we really want to be seen as a resort destination.”