Tourist makeover for Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is to undergo a makeover to celebrate its 120th birthday.

Online ticketing and improved waiting areas will be set up to slash the huge queues that can form around the world’s most visited landmark.

A total of €170 million has been set aside for the project which will be complete by 2015.

Visitors will be able to book tickets online in advance at particular times – a system already in place for tour groups. It is due to start in the autumn of 2009.

Tower managers hope to attract more school groups, disabled visitors, and Parisians – who currently only make up 2% of the annual seven million visitors.

More shops and restaurants will set up on and around the tower. The refurbishment will include a champagne bar on the top floor – 324m above the city.

Organisers say currently tourists spend an average of €3.50 above the ticket price (€7.50) – well below that of tourist sites of similar renown.

The number of visitors to the tower has doubled in the last 25 years.

At the base visitors will be given better shelter and access. The ticket offices will be centralised instead of scattered around the four feet.

The tower’s two lifts, built in 1899, will also be overhauled to improve speed and capacity.

Managers also intend to refit the tower’s lighting and illuminations to reduce energy consumption.

Designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built for the 1889 universal exhibition in Paris and was initially dismissed as an eyesore by many Parisians.

The Eiffel Tower was intended to be taken down after 20 years, but the authorities decided to let it stand, first for use as a radio communications tower and then as a landmark in its own right.

Photo:Fabian Winiger