I still remember the morning in 1993 when Sydney was awarded the 2000 Olympics. About the same time the state of Victoria was almost declared bankrupt.

I, like many others at the time, thought Sydney would catapult ahead and leave Melbourne in its dust. Almost the complete opposite has occurred.

Destination NSW, the government's own tourism body, in its recent Visitor Economy Taskforce Report outlines this Sydney decline, particularly in the tourism sector.

If you have any doubt about the need for a new world-class hotel in Sydney, I urge you to read its report at www.destinationnsw.com.au.

The most worrying statistic is that Sydney is slipping in tourist growth markets, like China, where we are losing our national share of airline seat capacity and as a consequence our share of outbound China trips to Australia.

With our harbour and climate, Sydney should be one of the world's best destinations, but we are being let down by an under-investment in quality tourism infrastructure.

Since the Olympics, no large five-star hotel has been built here outside of The Darling at The Star and that is despite a major shortage of hotel beds in the city.

As the recent report by Tourism Accommodation Australia found, Sydney needs 5000 rooms by 2020 to meet the demands of travellers.

Without new hotels we are not going to get there.

I am a believer in the power of Sydney. When Sydney is prosperous, the rest of the country benefits economically.

A world-class landmark resort on Sydney Harbour can be the catalyst to help turn the city around, just as Crown assisted in the turnaround of Melbourne.

Crown's ambition is to build the world's best six-star hotel resort at Barangaroo.

We want it to be an iconic building that complements the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Crown's record demonstrates we can deliver a centrepiece that will draw millions of visitors to Sydney and allow us to better compete for international conferences, conventions and major events.

To allow us to invest in a quality product and make the project commercially viable, our proposal includes VIP-only gaming and - as I have made clear - there will be no poker machines.

Some commentators have raised the process we are undertaking to progress our proposal. The NSW unsolicited proposal process exists to allow any organisation with unique ideas to make a submission to the government. We have followed that process to the letter and, despite reaching stage two, there is a long way to go.

We are not the only business following this process. The infrastructure company Transurban recently progressed to stage two with its plan to link the M2-F3 freeways and I say good luck to them; Sydney needs this sort of infrastructure.

It's interesting that the same commentators criticising us for pursuing this process were eerily silent when Transurban progressed to stage two.

We have worked hard to ensure the community has access to the details of our project, making Crown's full proposal available online. We are proud of what we are proposing and we are the only company that can deliver this unique package.

For a hotel resort in Sydney to be a landmark building that will attract millions of visitors, it must be on Sydney Harbour. Barangaroo is the only waterfront and harbourside location in the Sydney CBD that will accommodate such a development.

We were wrong to have initially designated our proposal on Barangaroo Central and we were rightly admonished by the former prime minister Paul Keating and the state's political leaders.

We listened, took the community's concerns on board and worked hard to strike an agreement with Lend Lease to move the hotel resort to Barangaroo South, where it will reside totally on their commercial site and not on public land.

This exclusive agreement with Lend Lease (the developer of Barangaroo South) makes Crown the only organisation that can deliver a hotel on the Barangaroo site.

When it comes to architecture, Crown will leave that to the experts. We'll be listening to the best architects the world has to offer. An international design competition is the best way to give Sydney a world renowned building.

The project will create 1400 long-term jobs and we have partnered with community organisations such as the United Voice union and the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence to ensure a harmonious workplace and to give indigenous workers a career pathway from school to employment.

There is still a long way to go but Crown is committed to giving Sydney an iconic project that can give our city back the spark it had a decade ago.

I urge all Sydneysiders to judge the merits of the project for themselves by viewing our proposal to the NSW government at crownlimited.com.

For The Good Of Sydney, Back This Plan