Portsmouth, the new Malta

Tourism bosses are attempting to lure visitors to the unfashionable seaside city of Portsmouth by comparing it to Malta, writes James Piercy in The Telegraph:

In a new marketing campaign scheduled to run throughout the summer, Southern Railways – which operates services between central London and the south coast – describes Portsmouth as "The New Malta".

Although Portsmouth is famous for its naval history and its FA Cup-winning football team, it also boasts obesity rates and crime levels well above the national average. Southern Railways' advertising campaign follows the unveiling last month of a French-themed online video comparing Blackpool, a traditional haven for stag and hen weekends, to a sophisticated European town.

"We probably get about two weeks of sunshine at best, and you are more used to seeing people fighting than socialising in a quaint café," said Tim Courtnell, a life-long Portsmouth resident. "The beach at Southsea is a mixture of shingle and Stella Artois cans on most days, and you wouldn't think of swimming in the sea."

Posters have been put up in railway and Tube stations across the capital, though they may struggle to tempt the London Mayor. Boris Johnson once quipped that Portsmouth was "one of the most depressed towns in southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs".

The city's average summer temperature is 20.7C, compared to 30.7C in Malta, while Portsmouth's summer rainfall averages 44.5mm, 10 times more than the residents of Malta can expect.