On Thursday, March 16th, 2023, the BAM Leb mobile application was launched as an innovative touristic and cultural guide to Lebanon, aiming to benefit both locals and tourists. The app is funded by the European Union and developed by Agenda Cultural, offering an interactive, personalized, and indispensable tool for exploring the diverse offerings of Lebanon.
The BAM Community
The app targets anyone living in or visiting Lebanon, catering to a wide range of interests including beach days, mountain excursions, family weekends, shopping afternoons, and various workshops and experiences.
BAM Leb offers a subscription system allowing users to create their own itineraries and share them with others. The app features over 3000 entries from cultural places, hotels, beaches, and hiking trails to trendy shops and guesthouses, all actively participating in Lebanon's vibrant cultural and touristic scene.
Originating from the "Beirut Art Maps" (BAM) of Agenda Cultural in 2019, the BAM project has since expanded to encompass all maps and activities in the field of tourism, including museums, guesthouses, and wineries.
With the BAM Leb app, users can browse through an extensive list of tourist sites, save places and activities of interest, access personalized content tailored to their preferences, refine searches by geographical area, tags, and other filters to create custom itineraries, choose from numerous trip collections curated by the BAM team, and share personal itineraries and collections with friends and family.
The app highlights Lebanon's rich touristic and cultural heritage by listing entries across five main categories: Eat & Drink, Stay, Heritage & Culture, Activities, and Shopping. It serves as a user-friendly tool for easily discovering new places and planning excursions in Lebanon.
The launch event took place at the Saleh Barakat Gallery in Beirut, where a captivating exhibition by Katya Traboulsi, 'Rej3a ya Mama', set the stage for a discussion on culture and tourism in Lebanon. Among the attendees were ambassadors, artists, friends, and Agenda Cultural readers.
The launch event took place at the Saleh Barakat Gallery in Beirut, where a captivating exhibition by Katya Traboulsi, 'Rej3a ya Mama', set the stage for a discussion on culture and tourism in Lebanon. Among the attendees were ambassadors, artists, friends, and Agenda Culturel readers.
Myriam Nasr Shuman, Owner and Managing Director of Agenda Culturel, introduced the concept and development process behind the app. Team members Leslie Saliba and Nadine Fardon then showcased the app's rich content and various features.
Renowned actor Georges Khabbaz, the event's guest of honor, highlighted the significance of platforms like Agenda Cultural for Lebanon's arts and culture scene. He also shared a poem he had written about Lebanon.
The event featured a panel discussion on the importance of tools like the BAM Leb app for local tourism development. Ralph Tarraf, Ambassador of the European Union to Lebanon, outlined the reasons the European Union supported the initiative. "Investing in Lebanon's cultural and tourism sectors not only creates jobs and strengthens local economies but also helps preserve the country's diverse cultural heritage at a time of crisis," he said.
Elissar Baalbaki, Head of the Tour Guides Syndicate, discussed the challenges faced by the sector and the importance of regulating the tour guide profession. Pascal Abdallah, responsible tourism expert, emphasized the global shift towards more sustainable practices in the industry and the need for Lebanon to establish a legal framework and regulations to follow suit. Maguy Kostanian recalled the rationale behind creating the label "Les plus beaux villages du Liban" and its challenges in the current context.
The panel discussion, moderated by journalist and travel influencer Elsa Yazbek Charabati, was followed by a cocktail reception and an exhibition visit.