Sydney - It's happened again: tourists expecting to land in Sydney for a dream Australian holiday stepped onto the tarmac of the wrong Sydney, a fishing village in Canada's Nova Scotia province.

Two Dutch tourists, Amsterdam's Joannes Rutten and his grandson Nick, realised they had booked the wrong flights only when they touched down at the tiny Canadian airport, the Herald Sun reported Tuesday.

According to the Cape Breton Post, the Dutch pair are the third set of tourists in as many years to muddle up Australia's biggest city and a Canadian backwater 17,000 kilometres apart.

"It works out okay for them because people feel sorry for them and, look, they're treated like royalty with free rooms and tours of the town," a local resident told the Cape Breton Post.

Air Canada arranged flights back to Amsterdam.

Three years ago Australian tourism authorities offered a replacement vacation to British holidaymakers who turned up in the wrong Sydney. (dpa)