This Just In: Sydney's Personal Brand Is Costing the City a Potential $3 Billion a Year
It's a city of 5.5 million people, with nationally leading industry, education and culture — but wasted potential is costing the city economy billions in forgone revenue.
Sydney is home to everything from top universities and startups to massive multicultural communities and art centres. But somehow its international PR is falling flat, as told by the newly released Beyond the Postcard report by the Committee for Sydney, the latest stage in the group's Sydney Global Project. Those who live in Sydney know that this city is so much more than its globally recognisable landmarks, but as this community think tank reports, Sydney's global brand has yet to expand past the same old postcard sights.
Thanks to that paper-thin presentation, which falls short of representing the diversity and depth of Harbour City and its 5.5 million residents, Sydney is losing approximately $3.3 billion in potential tourism revenue and international investment each year. As the report states, "peer cities are out-competing us through more deliberate and cohesive efforts to shape global perception and reinforce their strengths across multiple audiences."
Destination NSW
The report blames complacency, the reliance on legacy visuals, and static branding, arguing that Sydney's ageing international brand won't compete on the global tourism stage as more and more cities around the world make their case as destinations. A key example? In 2025, over 80 percent of the top 1000 images of Sydney on Google Images featured the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House or Bondi Beach. Sydney is the third most multicultural city in the world, but its image is one of just aesthetics.
The groundwork for Sydney's international renaissance has already been laid. As outlined in the report, in the last two years, Sydney has attracted over 65 percent of Australian startup funding, the most international visitors of any Australian city (3.6 million in FY25), 28 percent of Australia's total migrant population, almost half of Australia's business R&D funding and over 36 percent of Australia's international students.
Destination NSW
The report argues that to unlock Sydney's potential, its brand must celebrate the city's people, not just its pretty sights. Committee for Sydney Chief Executive Eamon Waterford told Sydney Morning Herald, "The people of Sydney are interesting, and really attractive to the world; they are exciting to global investors, to visitors who are looking for rich cultural experiences, to students who are wondering where they should go to university — Sydney's got it all…but we don't sell that human story."
As to next steps? It's not just as simple as a visual brand overhaul, the report argues. Sydney has economic momentum, a necessary first step, but the most important thing now is cohesion: governments, industries, institutions and communities aligning on the city's shared story — closing the "perception and performance gap" by showcasing the Sydney of the 21st century.
Paddo Collective
As Waterford said, "It's about everybody recognising there are great things that Sydney has going for it, and then including them in the stories they're sharing with the world." To do so, the next stage for the Committee for Sydney is to craft a more comprehensive "brand bible" for Sydney, recruiting a myriad of locals, creatives and key figures to outline the city's diverse assets and elevate its global positioning.
Read the full report by the Committee for Sydney here.
Lead image: Destination NSW
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