Other leading industries in Sydney include tourism, educational services and manufacturing. Tourism earnings are expected to increase substantially in the year 2000 when Sydney hosts the Summer Olympic Games. Sydney is the principal Australian location for two-thirds of the over 160 overseas firms with regional headquarters in Australia. As of 1995, approximately one quarter of the regional headquarters were for professional service firms and one-quarter were for information technology firms. Sydney's transportation and communications infrastructure is considered excellent.
Transportation is relatively easy and roads are unclogged.
In 1995, Sydney had direct flights to 152 destinations and nearly 300 international departures a week. Given the nature of modern communications networks, where any geographic position on the network can be as good as any other, Sydney is a contender for the regional operations of communications and data-intensive activities. As a result, companies like IBM, Cathay Pacific and others have set up regional data processing operations in Sydney. The Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, actually transmits some articles to Sydney for editing before they are sent back to Singapore. One of Sydney's major attractions has been its relatively low costs for labour, office space, warehousing space, factory space, communication charges and living costs.