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Mandate:

Conceptualize new potential attractions for the Argo Cable Car in Batumi, Georgia.   

Source: Georgia.travel

As one of the city’s most iconic attractions, the cable car takes visitors on a journey from the harbor to the heights of Anaria Mountain, providing passengers with panoramic views of the Black Sea and the Batumi cityscape.  With a high of over 3.5 million tourists pre-pandemic, Batumi is an emerging tourist destination in the Black Sea region, with sunny beaches, vibrant nightlife and casinos, and a variety of natural and cultural attractions, from its lauded botanical gardens to the beauty of the Caucasus Mountains.  

Introduction

Cable cars, as a type of “view” attraction, offer more than just transportation; they provide visitors with the experience of soaring above landscapes, often with stunning vistas.  The journey of moving from a lower to higher plane, and vice versa, is the experience.  For attraction operators, it provides the opportunity to design the guest experience at the base and the summit, as well as in between.  

Argo was working with an established base of operations, with nearly 1,000 passengers moved per day.  Its operations were highly seasonal, however, even relative to general tourism to Batumi, and pronounced peaking shown during the fall months.  

Its stations at the base and summit were designed by architectural firm RTKL, and while there was relatively little land at the base to work with, there was nearly 16,000 square meters at the summit and a six-floor building (mostly empty) at the summit. 

Most of the land at the summit, however, was hillside and at incline.  Aside from a small grassy area of several hundred square meters, there was little else to work with in terms of the new program.

Market Context

In Batumi, the tourist market of more than 2 million in 2022 (3.5m at its peak in 2019) was far in excess of the 250,000 residents living within a 90-minute travel time of the project.  Even after qualifying these tourists for leisure & recreation motives (versus business), it totaled more than 1.5 million potential visitors as of 2022.  

Tourists were overwhelmingly attracted by local cuisine, art, and culture.  There was a large gender disparity, with most visitors male.  Lengths of stay for those from outside the Black Sea region were in excess in 5 nights, ranging up to almost 10 nights for visitors from Europe and the United States.  

Comparables & Benchmarks

Local

There were numerous attractions in the city center and waterfront area, ranging from ride parks to waterpark, an aquarium, dolphinarium, and various indoor playgrounds and FECs.  There was also a karting attraction and skating rink in proximity.  

Cable Cars

For cable cars around the world, ancillary attractions were a well-established precedent.  The types of attractions built in or around cable cars include:

• Adventure parks – with ropes courses, ziplining, via ferrata, hanggliding, and other adventure activities.
• Alternative accommodations – such as tiny homes, domes, and camping-type facilities at the summit.
• Commemorative activities – photo opportunities, souvenirs, love locks, etc.
• Hiking/biking – trails for mountain biking & hiking either up or down the summit as an alternative to the cable car.
  
• Meeting or event space – amphitheaters, showrooms, other multipurpose space.
  
• Observatories – viewing of planetary bodies and the night sky.
  
• Museums and exhibitions – local or cultural museums, exhibitions, or interactive exhibits (e.g. petting zoo).
  
• Rides – VR, multi-sensory shows, trams, flyers located at the summit, or luge, zipline, gliders, mountain carts, or other rides down from the summit.
  

Wheels

Another major type of attraction we reviewed were giant wheels.  Aside from their more stationary nature, they share characteristics with cable car attractions in that they’re “view” attractions, there is developable land for attractions around their base, and the experience is getting into a car and going on a “journey”.  The types of attractions typically built in or around wheels include:

• Event or meeting space – amphitheaters and other event spaces.
  
• Flying theaters – high capacity, interactive, moving theaters, usually with 10-15 minute shows that play on a relevant theme to the location.
  
• Indoor attractions – such as bowling, karting, FEC-type, playrooms, museums, minigolf, aquariums, arcades located next to the wheel.
  
• Playgrounds – indoor space with children’s activities.
  
• Standalone rides – flight simulators, carousels, dark rides.
  
• VIP car – individual, sometimes customized cars available for private rent, at premium pricing.
  
• Miscellaneous – other including wildlife attractions, bike rentals

Preliminary Recommendations

As a summary of the prevailing conditions, we noted several key conditions:

• Developable land around the summit was approximately 1,500 sqm, wth 2,700 sqm free within the building itself.  
• Most international visitors to Georgia in general are repeat visitors, suggesting a multi-program destination would be beneficial.  It would also help tap into the resident market, which usually needs reasons to visit more than once. 
• The base of the cable car was surrounded by attractions, ranging from amusement parks, waterparks, to wildlife and marine life attractions. Visitors needed a reason to visit the top.

Based on these conditions, we made the following recommendations as potential categories of attractions.

• Interactive exhibits – Love locks, interactive art installations, other live or static exhibits that are both visually and architecturally striking, and give character to the attraction.  These are usually high-engagement attractions that give character to the project at an economical budget.
  
• Hilltop ride – Luges, slides, towers, and other rides that take advantage of the hilltop location.  Hilltop locations have their own character – even attractions that may be present in other parts of Batumi (towers, wheels) will pale in comparison to the unique location.
  
• VIP cars – Premium, private gondolas offering drinks or F&B service, an ability to conduct meetings, special events, anniversaries.  This would be a way of price discriminating and segmenting higher-expenditure visitors from the mass market. This is a way of targeting resident visitors as well, from couples to corporate groups.
  
• Standalone ride – VR, flight simulator, or other attractions not present in the market that complement the soaring views.  Not only are these attractions differentiated from those present in the market, they can be combined with the VIP Car for a more premium offering as well.
  
• Adventure park – ropes course, safari, trail, zipline. Another example of an attraction that gains from soaring views.  High-engagement, longer length of stay attractions that attract both a tourist and resident crowd (corporate and school groups are a primary target among residents). Gains from elevation.
  
• Observatory – offering a giant telescope, events around meteor showers & planet viewings, etc.  This would be a unique and differentiated attraction that takes advantage of the hilltop location; would also see more usage during the winter/fall months when the sun sets earlier.
  
• Museum/Exhibit – Enclosed space offering a cultural/local art or other exhibit unique to Batumi, doubling as a gift shop and offering space for meetings.  A multi-purpose space maximizing utilization by targeting both tourists (by offering local art & culture) and residents (by offering a rentable space for meetings).
  
• Garden – A lushly landscaped grounds serving as a botanical attraction, with trails, vistas, places of contemplation. Takes advantage of the hilltop location.  Like others on this list, such an attraction is differentiated, takes advantage of the views, and would lengthen stays without being unduly capital-intensive.

Further Conceptualization & Refinement

After making initial concept recommendations, further discussion resulted in several conclusions and constraints.  Argo desired a combination of both indoor and outdoor attractions, with an interactive and educational FEC as the primary indoor attraction, and adventure park as the primary outdoor attraction.

Our next step was to enter a second phase of more detailed conceptualization based on these desired components, design a program, and build the financial models.  For more details, purchase and download the case study here.