Luweibdeh guide puts business and culture on better footing

'The guide carefully provides names and addresses of important places and cultural monuments to see in Jabal Luwibdeh which is refreshing for tourists coming to Amman and the Kingdom, and for those attending business events and exhibition in the Kingdom, says Kawar, also Petra Tours general manager specializing in inbound tourism to Jordan.

The guide is an excellent shorthand book for someone who wants to explore the delights of a rich neighborhood tucked away within minutes of Amman's downtown area. Here, the author starts off with a map telling you of the important places to go in Luweibdeh, from its beginning till the end.

The guides provides the visitor with important footnotes of cultural landmarks, art galleries, roundabouts and parks to souvenir shops, rich diners and restaurants, cafes and shops of where to go and what to see.

Besides Darat Al Funun, which is a major cultural artistic institution and the French Cultural Center, who together with the Amman Municipality are sponsors of the guide, there are numerous art galleries, and literary associations for the visitor who wants to spend a day or an afternoon from a grueling business conference, event or an exhibition. The carefully drawn map in the guide can show them the way of where to go, where to relax, where to eat, and different exhibits to attend.

Many international visitors, including famous personalities like Italian intellectual Alberto Moravia visited the Jabal and were so enchanted by its quaint architecture that goes back to the 1920s and 1930s.

Awni Kawar says inbound tour operators, especially those who specialize in MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events], should have the cultural guide on hand to advice their clients of where to go as parts of the attractions in Amman and how to spend their time in the Jabal.

At the Square du Paris, named in 2003, and previously the Hawooz roundabout, or at the renovated park next to the National Gallery, visitors can sit and relax while thumbing the cultural guide that has a wealth of information on the history of Luweibdeh, its famous personalities, its writers, artists and those who pass by to experience its quite charm.

If visitors are not particularly interested in that, they can ponder on the different easy-to-read articles on different aspects of Luweibdeh and its culture as seen through its people and intellectuals.

The guide is full of pictures of Luweibdeh, from its residents, shop-keepers, owners of businesses to its officials. You could well see some of the people you read about in the guide roaming around its streets which becomes rather exciting, because it creates social bonding between the reader, the guidebook and its different people.

Visitors may end up wondering how can a small Jabal have so many diverse elements and community structures, institutions, non-governmental organization, a hospital, health clinics, schools, mosques, churches, IT companies and in such a short geographical space while maintaining its own cultural identity.

For the corporate executive, he could well get back to the business conference or exhibition feeling refreshed.