Bradfield Oration: Sydney needs more tourists and planes, says minister
TOURISM Minister Adam Marshall has vowed to fight “ridiculous” laws that limit the number of planes that can come and go every hour at Sydney airport to just 80.
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THE NSW Tourism Minister wants to relax rules governing the number of flights in and out of Sydney Airport and get even more planes in the air.
In a move that is sure to prove controversial, Adam Marshall said restricting the numbers to 80 planes per hour is “frankly ridiculous”.
And Mr Marshall has pledged to take his dogfight for control of the skies to his federal counterparts because “they run the airport and they have a vested interest in making sure tourism in NSW grows”.
“I’m advocating that within the legislated restrictions of Sydney Airport there are some quite frankly ridiculous regulations that could potentially stifle our potential to grow,” he said.
“One of those areas — and we are going to have to confront it — one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure is Sydney Airport.
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“The fact is, the way Sydney airport is currently regulated significantly inhibits our ability, and will increasingly in the future, inhibit our ability to grow the tourism sector.”
“We are the envy of other states but need to take it to the next level.”
Mr Marshall said he was caught up in a recent incident where the airport was shut down for 45 minutes due to a technical glitch, delaying flights around the country.
“Because of the restriction of 80 flights per hour, there was no capacity in the next hour to do more than that,” he said.
“Sydney Airport and the artificial constriction is an issue which is going to inhibit our ability to grow. We need to take an argument up to the Commonwealth about that.
“They run the airport and they have a vested interest in making sure tourism in NSW grows.”
Despite tourists arriving in record numbers, Mr Marshall has assembled a high-flying group of businessmen and pollies to review tourism policy in a “no-holds barred approach”.
“Sydney is major international gateway with nearly 60 per cent of all international tourists coming to Australia via Sydney,” he said.
“We are the envy of other states but need to take it to the next level.”
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New figures released to The Daily Telegraph show Sydney beats other capital cities hands down — with a growth of almost 10 per cent in visitor numbers taking the yearly total to 3.75 million international tourists.
And they also have deep pockets, spending a record $9 billion.
Mr Marshall said there’s a strong role to play in promoting Western Sydney — particularly to the lucrative Chinese market, where only 5 per cent of visitors go outside of Sydney.