SOME 500 MILLION DRAMS INVESTED IN TATEV AERIAL TRAMWAY THIS YEAR
ARKA
Oct 17, 2011
YEREVAN, October 17. / ARKA /. A total of 500 million drams have been
invested in the world’s longest aerial tramway this year built to
transport visitors to the Medieval Monastery of Tatev in southern
Armenia, the facility’s director, Tigran Kazarian told reporters
Sunday. He said part of the investment was spent on building a cafe
lounge and two souvenir shops and information centers.
“The residents of nearby villages may provide tourists with bed
and breakfast made of locally produced ecologically clean natural
products,” he said.
According to him, about 80% of tourists coming to Tatev want to stay
in a rural house or outdoors in tents. He said the number of tourists
visiting the Monastery this year has increased 12 times form last
year. Kazarian said the opening of the cable car allowed to create
55 new jobs, and four more jobs are set to open soon. The personnel
are residents of Goris and surrounding communities.
The 5.7-kilometer-long aerial tramway transports visitors from the
village of Halidzor across the Vorotan gorge to the village of Tatev,
within walking distance of the monastery, allowing tourists and
visitors to bypass a 90-minute drive on a dilapidated road in and
out of the Vorotan River Gorge.
The reversible cable car line cost $18 million, with much of the
funding coming from private donations, according to the National
Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, which oversaw the project
through its Tatev Revival Project.
The cable car travels at a speed of 37 kilometers per hour (23 miles
per hour) and a one-way journey takes 11 minutes. At its highest
point over the gorge, the car travels 320 meters (1,056 feet)
above ground level. It has two cabins, each capable of carrying
up to 25 passengers. Local residents can ride the cable car once a
day free while others will have to pay 3,000 Armenian drams (eight
dollars/six euros.). The cable car is part of a $45 million-dollar
public-private effort to develop tourism at Tatev and in the overall
region of Syunik. The aerial tramway was officially registered by a
representative of the Guinness World Records in 2010 October 23.