YEREVAN, December 26 /ARKA/. The Armenian village of Byurakan, hosting the famous Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, has become one of the most popular tourist attractions of the country, Areg Mikayelyan, the director of the observatory, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He said in 2017 some 17,000 tourists visited the observatory, up from 3-4 thousand tourists that used to visit it several years ago. He said this year alone the observatory has earned 12 million drams as tourism-generated income, up from 4.7 million drams in 2017.

He said also the  Byurakan Observatory has successfully retained its status of the regional astronomical center.  

In 2018 Byurakan Observatory researchers have published 50 scientific papers in various journals  and participated in a number of key international scientific conferences and projects.

Mikayelyan said that the observatory in 2018 received 212 million drams of budget funds, a similar amount is provided by the draft state budget for 2019. According to the director, the wage fund makes up 65% of budget financing. ($ 1- 484 dram) –0–