Georgia: An "Eiffel Tower" for Batumi, a "Central Park" for Tbilisi

They are both fancy and formidable and they are again coming Georgia’s way. To be specific, Batumi's way. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on October 20 unveiled fresh construction plans for the Black Sea resort town that include a 150-meter-tall glass "Eiffel Tower" decorated with letters from the Georgian alphabet, an aerial tramway, a funicular and an artificial golden beach.


“Today we kick off construction of Batumi’s Eiffel Tower and we need to complete it in five months,” Saakashvili told journalists. The Spanish firm CMD Ingenieros, a longtime presidential favorite, will handle the job. 

If such buildings aren't enough, Batumi can always fall back on its balmy temperatures, the official thinking seems to go. After paddling about together with officials and professional swimmers in the Black Sea for TV cameras -- the subject of an entire news story by pro-government Rustavi2 -- Saakashvili came ashore and whipped out an iPad to check temperatures in other sea resorts and promote Batumi's 29 degrees Celsius (84.2 degrees Fahrenheit) to waiting TV crews.

The seaside projects come in sync with construction of a ski resort in the remote mountains of Svaneti that will allegedly be accessible by plane from another Georgian Black Sea resort spot. Meanwhile, back in Tbilisi, American landscape designers have reportedly arrived to help create an “analogue” of New York City’s Central Park.


The range of projects might build local hopes that Georgia will come to be known for something other than conflicts, but whether these attractions will bring tourists in their wake remains to be seen.