Batumi Boom Town
GEORGIA 2024
Part 2
Batumi appeared in fragments: first the billboards, then the cranes, then the skyline. We arrived after dark, the roadside lined with glowing panels advertising apartments still on paper. The hillside dropped away as the road wound through the outskirts, where the outlines of cranes and half-lit towers came and went in the darkness. At first, we couldn’t quite piece together what we were seeing. Up to this point, our experience of Georgian cities had been limited to minimally maintained commie-block towns with chaotic road layouts.
Then the coastline opened ahead. The main city rose from the water’s edge. It was immediately clear why people call Batumi the Las Vegas of the Black Sea. The city sparkled with brightly lit, extravagantly designed high-rises: a colourful, blinking spectacle.
Our Airbnb was in an older quarter, a modest four-story with an external staircase. Since there were no other guests, the landlord moved us up a floor for a better view. From our window, sleek towers stood over rusted tin roofs and an aging Soviet neighbourhood
1 The Night of Arrival
BRIEF RECAP: Batumi’s role as a logistics hub in trade between Asia and Europe dates back over 2,000 years. Originally founded as an ancient port city along the historic Silk Road, Batumi maintained its strategic significance into the 20th century, serving as a key point for exporting oil from Azerbaijan to Western Europe. During the Soviet era, it evolved into a popular beach resort. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Batumi became part of the autonomous region of Adjara, which remained largely isolated from the rest of Georgia until 2004. It was in the early 2000s that Kazakh investors began to recognize Batumi’s potential, gradually transforming the city into Central Asia’s premier gambling destination.
2 Checking out the areas close by
In the early 2000s, Batumi began attracting Kazakh investors. Since then it is gradually earning its reputation as the "Las Vegas of the Black Sea." The city became a magnet for gamblers from Turkey, Iran and other muslim and middle eastern countries where gambling is prohibited.
In recent years, Batumi has experienced an unprecedented real estate boom. Its seaside has been transformed into a skyline dominated by hotels and apartment buildings, fueling the fastest-growing real estate market in Georgia. Despite the impressive numbers, many of these buildings remain partially or even mostly unoccupied. Even during peak holiday seasons, the anticipated influx of tourists has yet to fully materialize. Meanwhile, Batumi has become home to many young Russians and Ukrainians fleeing military conscription. Their presence has made Russian the unofficial main language in the city.
Through our second accommodation, we wanted to get a better picture of Batumi's current real estate boom. We stayed in a one-room apartment in the Batumi Beach Tower, located in the city’s downtown area. The building was one of the many modern “apart-hotels” — a hybrid of individually owned apartments with hotel amenities and concierge service. At the reception desk, we received our keys.
3 Moving to a Boom Town Apartment (28GEL/10€ per night special discount)
Inside our room, everything was tidy and clean. The plus: A soft bed, that felt like heaven compared to what we had been sleeping on the previous days. The cons: A suspiciously shaking balcony railing, and a questionable amount of algae in the shower. While taking a good rest, we could constantly hear the DING of the elevators arriving in the corridor through the thin metal doors. Worth noticing is, that the ground floor of the building was only half utilized. Downstairs, the ground floor seemed whole at first glance — neat, proper, and betraying nothing of the fact that a wall behind the lobby hid half the space, sealing off a row of perfectly empty rooms. Later we found out, that all floors above the 24th were completely empty. If you accidentally pressed the "Roof" button in the elevator, it would ascend to a stop exposed to the open sky, with only a flimsy grid door standing between you and a sheer drop. Needless to say, the advertised rooftop garden was nonexistent.
4 INVEST NOW!
After our first few days, we were still overwhelmed by the sheer scale of Batumi’s construction boom. Billboards loomed over every street, promising taller towers and glossier lifestyles — promises we regarded with suspicion, since our second accommodation had already revealed how hollow such visions can be. As the day went on, the pattern repeated itself: grand ideas rarely matched the lived reality.
5 Skyscraper Adventure
During our second day immersed in this surreal dreamscape, the urge to ascend one of its prestigious towers became irresistible. We set our sights on the most intriguing structure – kindly referred to as The Pearl of the Black Sea – only to find it was, in truth, a ghost tower: an abandoned or partially stalled construction site. At sunset, we found our way inside.
Besides accomplishing our self-set goal of ascending the most fashionable skyscraper in town, I want to share some other noteworthy observations we made in Batumi.
1. CCTV
Firstly, the whole city is full of CCTV, both in public on every street corner and in private areas there was a camera mounted on a pole or to the wall. And, before you ask, yes, the cameras were working and yes, they are also being monitored. (We made some tests!)
2. The city has its own Central Park
It is called Parki 6 Maisi. Alongside tree-lined paths and neatly trimmed lawns, it features the 5.5-hectare Nurigeli Lake, said to be of natural origin.
3. Neon City
Thirdly, high-rise buildings and neon signs have a longstanding tradition in Batumi - one that predates its current construction boom..
4. Digital Government
Fourth, as we initially intended only to pay our parking fees, we discovered that these same Paybox Machines are also used for gambling. We ended up losing all our money on Crystalbet. (just kidding.) The machines are indispensable if you need to pay government fines—which, incidentally, was exactly what we had to do because Georgia’s traffic rules seemed quite obscure, and its fully surveilled highway system catches everything.
5. Police Patrol
Fifth, even compared to other Georgian cities, there seemed to be significantly more police cars patrolling in Batumi. This felt quite strange, as there wasn’t much happening on the streets, and we were very sure, that we were the only real foreigners in the entire city anyway.
6. Last Words
Thank you Batumi for the many unexpected twists and fascinating contradictions you have shown to us — exactly the kind of experience I love most about traveling. If I ever get the chance, I would definitely return, as a couple of important things were not accomplished, yet.