Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Guidebook Economist Style: Doing business in Sydney

The Economist is a regular podcast listen of mine. This week "Doing Business in Sydney" by the Economist appeared in my iTunes podcast feed. Is a ten minute Sydney guide by the Economist (odeo player with audio below) covering airport practicalities, business culture, restaurant and hotel recommendations and side trips if you have a moment. Interesting that the Economist is getting into the very crowded guidebook space. As to the content itself as a Sydney native I agreed with most of the recommendations except the comments on the airport.

Comments like
  1. "by and large waiting times at immigration are not that onerous"; and
  2. '"usually no wait for taxi's" [at the airport].
....are scandalous untruths. A business or leisure traveller to Sydney can be practically 100% guaranteed of great weather, amazing views, entertaining people and a relaxed but serious business environment. Hopefully all that will be enough to help the traveller recover from the endless queues, scans and form checkers of Sydney Airport Immigration, Customs and Quarantine and the most inefficient taxi rank system this side of the sub-continent.




5 comments:

Grayum_ian said...

Very true, I don't know how many times I have been "Swabbed" for bombs and drugs in the Sydney airport, both international and domestic. Still nothing compared to the Americans, especially those extra aggressive ones at YVR.

Interesting the Economist is jumping on the guidebook bandwagon... it'll be a cramped ride with all those bloggers already fighting for the spotlight.

Anonymous said...

Taxis.... maybe I've just always landed at the wrong time. It's not unusual to wait at least a 1/2 hr, longer if it's a Friday night and it's raining. Longer still if it's December and the taxis are all in the city ferrying people to Christmas parties. If you've got little luggage, it's quicker to catch the Airport Train to the city and catch a taxi there.

Tim Hughes said...

@Anon - "Friday night at Sydney airport in search of a taxi" is a horror movie showing at the Virgin Blue Blue Lounge and Qantas Club lounges around Australia. There are some Friday's when this can be blamed on a lack of cabs. However too often it is because the lazy and borderline corrupt NSW taxi system has established the most inefficient and useless taxi queue systems at Sydney airport. Resulting in long queues of people taking forever to be matched with long queues of taxis.

Tim Hughes said...

@Grayum_ian - very good comment about the grounded space including Lonely Planet, Offbeat guides and more.

Sydney Hotels said...

For taxis, maybe there should have a place where there are always available taxis for the travelers at the airport. It's like a taxi stand.