Much of Batumi's economy revolves around tourism and gambling (it is nicknamed "The Las Vegas of the Black Sea"), but the city is also an important seaport and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing.

Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.

ASSR in G.SSR) 1921–1991 Adjara (de facto independent, de jure part of Georgia) 1991–2004 Georgia (AR of Adjara), 1991 (2004)–present Batumi is located on the site of the ancient Greek colony in Colchis called "Bathus" or "Bathys", derived from (Ancient Greek: βαθύς λιμεν, bathus limen; or βαθύς λιμήν, bathys limēn; lit.

Under Hadrian (c. 117–138 AD), it was converted into a fortified Roman port and later deserted for the fortress of Petra founded in the time of Justinian I (c. 527–565).

A curious incident occurred in 1444 when a Burgundian flotilla, after a failed crusade against the Ottoman Empire, penetrated the Black Sea and engaged in piracy along its eastern coastline until the Burgundians under the knight Geoffroy de Thoisy were ambushed while landing to raid Vaty, as Europeans then knew Batumi.

In the one-and-a-half century of Ottoman rule it grew into a provincial port serving the Empire's hinterlands on the eastern fringes of the Black Sea.

After the Ottoman conquest, Islamization of the hitherto Christian region began but this was terminated and to a great degree reversed, after the area was annexed to Russian Imperial Georgia after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

[citation needed] The expansion of Batumi began with the construction of the Batumi–Tiflis–Baku Transcaucasus Railway (completed in 1883[6][7]), and the Baku–Batumi pipeline which opened in 1907.

[citation needed] Quakers and Tolstoyans aided in collecting funds for the relocation of the religious minority, which had come into conflict with the Imperial government over its refusal to serve in the military and other positions.

[citation needed] During 1901, sixteen years prior to the October Revolution, Joseph Stalin, the future leader of the Soviet Union, lived in the city organizing strikes.

As result of the end of World War I the British took control over Batumi from December 1918,[11] who stayed until July 1920 when the city and province was transferred to the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which gave Adjara autonomy.

[12] When Georgia regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Aslan Abashidze was appointed head of Adjara's governing council and subsequently held onto power throughout the unrest of the 1990s.

While Abkhazia and South Ossetia areas attempted to break away from the Georgian state, Adjara remained an integral part of the republic.

[citation needed] Since the change of power in Adjara, Batumi has attracted international investors, and the prices of real estate in the city have trebled since 2001.

In July 2007, the seat of the Constitutional Court of Georgia was moved from Tbilisi to Batumi to stimulate regional development.

[33][34] Muslims make up 25,3% of population,[33] while there are also Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh-day Adventist, and Jewish communities.

A sculpture by Tamara Kvesitadze of two standing figures on the seashore shows the story first told in the 1937 Austrian novel, Ali and Nino, of lovers who are parted after World War I.