A liner disaster and a football team are the two stongest images of Southampton in the minds of outsiders, according to an Echo survey...

IT HAS an "uninviting smell of fish" with a cold damp wind coming off the sea.

Schooner sails flap in the wind and the city has a rubbish football team.

No, we are not talking about Grimsby or Hull but Southampton - at least, as some other people see it.

Last week, the Daily Echo revealed that city leisure chiefs were looking for an "iconic" image to sell the city to the wider world.

They are hunting for the elusive "wow" factor that will bring visitors to Southampton - and persuade them to stay rather than pass through.

However, if comments from people around the country are anything to go by, city marketing wizards have a lot of selling to do.

From Darlington to Oxford people seem to have no clear idea about the city's treasure-house of heritage such as its famous (or not so famous) walls, The Bargate and the city's parks.

No mention is made of the internationally-renowned Millais Art Gallery whose on-going exhibition about terrorism was featured as a "must visit" show in The Guardian.

Instead, residents in Bradford, Oxford and Darlington could think of only two images - the Saints and how poorly they are performing in the Premier League at present and, of course, Titanic.

Nick Murray, 35, in Oxford was one of the few people who has actually visited Southampton in our survey.

Even he could not think of anything unique about the city.

He said: "Nothing really springs to mind when I think of Southampton. It doesn't really arouse my passions in any way. I've been there, walked around the shops, had a meal in the 'trendy' areas (Oxford Street and Bedford Place) and been to the football ground. It's not a bad place, but then again, I wouldn't describe it as a great place. It's just a run-of-the-mill, medium-sized English city - like many, many others I could name.

No mention of "The Home of Ocean Racing" or "The Gateway to Empire" there then. Or the Spitfire, the aircraft which helped save the nation from invasion, which was made on the banks of the Itchen.

Other comments are little better.

Photographer Richard Cave, 37, also of Oxford, added: "Southampton? No idea. Never been there. Schooner sails flapping in the cold damp wind as it comes off the sea, along with an uninviting smell of fish? Honestly, other than it being coastal, I have no image at all."

However, there are bright points in our survey. One resident from Darlington knew that Craig David hailed from Southampton and the Saints were perceived as having a "cool nickname".

Most people associated the city with the port and the sea. Although again and again the image of Titanic, the ship that sank, is what stuck most in people's minds.

The results of our survey came as no surprise to the city's overall boss of tourism and leisure, Councillor Peter Wakeford.

He said: "I am not surprised at all. Part of the problem is that we have only really promoted Southampton as other people have done in the past.

"It's really the same problem I have when I think of Sheffield. I am not surprised that people in Bradford and Darlington have no idea about the city, but people closer to home like Oxford - well, that does surprise me a lot."

He added: "We realise we have not sold the city. I would however like to think that in two or three years' time - certainly by the end of the decade - there will be a lot more activity including the cultural centre developments and developments on the waterfront. Then people will become more and more aware of Southampton and certainly by 2012, the city will be seen as world class.

"Perhaps it is time for them to come and see for themselves."

The director of Southampton's Solent Sky museum, Alan Jones, also told the Daily Echo he was not surprised at Southampton not registering on the county's radar.

He said: "The fact is that people cannot remember Southampton for anything. It just simply does not register with them at all.

"I am not surprised people don't know much about Southampton. We have buried our heritage. The rest of the country has dug its heritage up to put it on display. We have spent the last 30 years burying it."

What is the WoW Factor?

The Daily Echo is going all out to track down and identify the elusive Wow Factor

Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at newsdesk@soton-echo.co.uk or write to the Daily Echo newsdesk, Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge, Southampton SO16 9JX.

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