Has the Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower left Southampton in the shade?

Soaring 170 metres high, the Portsmouth landmark is now seen by many to symbolise the south coast.

And its success has had a knock-on effect throughout the tourism industry there, generating more than £72m for the Portsmouth economy, according to the tower operators.

But what does this mean for Southampton?

Never yet managing to capitalise on its rich heritage – which includes the Spitfire and the doomed Titanic – has it been left too late?

While they would probably never admit it, there can be few Southampton tourism chiefs who aren’t a touch green-eyed when looking 20 miles or so down the coast.

The Spinnaker Tower is the centrepiece of the £38m ‘Renaissance of Portsmouth Harbour’ redevelopment.

Along with the shops, restaurants and bars of Gunwharf Quays and the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, the tower makes up the ‘Waterfront City’ in Portsmouth.

And earlier this year, the Spinnaker joined the official list of the world’s greatest towers which includes the likes of the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building.

A prestigious achievement of course, but perhaps this is the point where any rose-tinted spectacles should be removed.

The Spinnaker Tower was shrouded in controversy more or less from day one.

When planning started in 1995, it was originally conceived as a Millennium project.

But after many delays and extra funding requests, the Spinnaker eventually opened six years late.

It went over budget and ended up costing £36m, leaving local taxpayers to foot a bill of over £11m.

This was despite an original pledge that the public would not have to pay a penny towards it.

But while it may have cost a fortune, nothing else could have given Portsmouth such a fantastic branding while Southampton continuously struggles to get noticed.

A clear reflection of this is in the opening TV credits for both Meridian Tonight and South Today.

Southampton doesn’t get a look in but they always show the tower.

“The Spinnaker Tower has been a great success for Portsmouth,” says Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth City Council.

“It helps to attract visitors and adds to our appeal as the premier waterfront city. All over the country, and increasingly, all over the world, the tower is a symbol of Portsmouth and the south coast.”

And while visitor numbers to the Spinnaker may have fallen in the last couple of years (they are opening a new cafe on Monday to help attract them back), it has generated £2.3m in profit revenue for Portsmouth City Council over the last five years. Then there’s the wider economic impact on the tourism industry, put at £72m when using a complex turnover and visitor number equation.

So what can Southampton do to trump them?

We may not be able to boast a landmark tower, but then given the controversy it’s created would we even want one?

The thought of such a project being proposed in the financially uncertain times of 2010 is inconceivable.

And Southampton City Council does appear to have taken the mistakes of the Spinnaker onboard.

“The Spinnaker Tower is good and it ticks all the boxes but it did of course cause some of its own problems,” says its leader, Cllr Royston Smith.

“We would never be able to put public money into something like that now. Whatever we do, we have to do it smarter, with the private sector and without disadvantaging the taxpayer.”

Let’s not forget what we do have here. Southampton has the walls, the Tudor House Museum (which will reopen shortly following massive investment), the QE2 mile, one of the best art collections in the country outside London, The Mayflower theatre, a range of museums and of course, WestQuay and IKEA.

And the leader of the city council is confident that the future of tourism in Southampton is finally going in the right direction.

Work has already started on the £15m Sea City Museum, which will see the Grade II listed former magistrates’ courts transformed into a museum about the ill-fated Titanic.

Then there is the multimillion- pound refurbishment of Guildhall Square, which will become the cultural centre of the city, hosting various events and surrounded by planned new arts and heritage attractions.

Work has started to raise money for a Spitfire memorial at Trafalgar Dock, a £150m extension to WestQuay is expected to start in around a year’s time and plans to redevelop the waterfront around the Royal Pier are under way.

“The thing I always say is that Southampton is quite good but it’s not quite finished yet,” says Cllr Smith.

“When it is, with the new arts complex, the waterfront and the potential for a snow dome, it is going to be exceptional.”

But wasn’t the opportunity to capitalise on Southampton’s heritage lost decades ago?

“It has been neglected for years,” he accepts.

“Not sometimes for any reason other than financial.

But we are the home of the Spitfire. The Spitfire saved us, we wouldn’t have the country we’ve got now without the Spitfire. Yet where is it in Southampton you can celebrate that?

We’re definitely going to put that back to the centre.

“The Titanic was a tragedy but it’s something that everyone knows about and we don’t shout anything like enough about it.

This has been regretted over the years and we’re going to put that right.”

And the leader believes that we haven’t fallen too far behind Portsmouth to ever catch up.

“We won’t have a Spinnaker Tower – we’ve got one of those and don’t need a second. But we’ll have something else. I’m sure that as we do that, Portsmouth will do something else, then we’ll do something else, and that’s progress.

“I wish Portsmouth well with its Spinnaker Tower but I think that Southampton is equally as interesting a place to visit and it will get even better in years to come.”

Perhaps he’s right and Southampton doesn’t need a soaring monolith to put us on the tourist map.

The city looks set to become a great cultural destination in the years to come – something it should have been for some time.

But whether Southampton will stay in the 170-metre shadow of Portsmouth, remains to be seen.