Murat Birsel
October 20, 1997

Turkish Odyssey

Serif Yenen undertook an important work and wrote a book on Turkey and Turkish Culture for travelers.

Why is it important?

Travelers visiting our country usually carry books written by foreigners. But you may consider Yenen's book as a "Guide Bleu" written by a Turk. It contains 550 pages, and over 300 photos and maps.

It is a must for those who are welcoming foreign visitors at home or work.

I must also admit that it is a very valuable reference book for the Turkish people as well. Read through the book, and you will definitely learn about beauties you have not known before, and thus can visit free of visas.

Here is the address for Internet users: www.turkishodyssey.com

August 04, 1998

A Guidebook for Conscious Travelers!

After five years of work in order to publish "Turkish Odyssey", and its website, the Turkish version for Turkish travelers "Anadolu Destani, Türkiye Gezi Rehberi" is now on the market.

Have you ever seen a Turkish tourist visiting any historical ruins and using a guidebook? I have always felt awful when I saw Turkish tourists walking around ruins eating sunflowers, or posing for photos sitting on statues. And I used to feel sorry seeing people coming from thousands of kilometers away were interested in details so much though we did not appreciate our cultural riches.

But in recent years it makes us more hopeful to see the situation is gradually changing, conscious travelers are increasing, guided tours are becoming more common, and people are reading foreign or local travel books. And we have some good news for conscious domestic tourists. 'Anadolu Destani, Türkiye Gezi Rehberi, which is the Turkish version of "TURKISH ODYSSEY, A Traveler's Guide to Turkey and Turkish Culture", and the third stage of Turkey promotion project prepared for the first time by a Turkish writer, is a new reference book for the Turkish readers.

In addition to useful information in almost every subject ranging from history to geography, population, types of administration, natural resources, ancient and current languages, religions, architectural characteristics, mythology, archaeology, people, and folklore of Anatolia, the book covers information about sites worth seeing on common routes.

Yenen's "TURKISH ODYSSEY, A Traveler's Guide to Turkey and Turkish Culture" written in 1997 in English for foreign tourists found such a great interest that the second edition is published now. Then came the website http://www.turkishodyssey.com in order to increase the number of readers. The site has been on service for 14 months now, and consists of 300 html pages, 500 jpg images, 65 megabyte of contents, a photo gallery grouped according to topics, interactive maps, and possibilities for online hotel and tour reservations. There are over 450 professional photos including Yusuf Tuvi's photos on Anatolian People, helicopter shots of Nejat Demirkollu, and photos from the archives of the Ministry of Tourism and Serif Yenen. Almost half of the nine thousand visitors of the website per month are Americans,and only one fourth are Turkish.