Çerez Örnek

DEPARTMENTS

Departmental Mission

With the responsibility of being the most established department in the field of Tourist Guiding education in our country, our mission is to develop an innovative approach to tourism policies, conduct R&D studies by following the current needs of the sector, and educate Tourist Guides equipped with the qualifications and competence to work as qualified professionals.

Introduction to the Tourist Guiding Department

The Tourist Guiding department began admitting students under faculty status as of the 2019-2020 academic year. Having produced its first graduates from the 4-year program in 2009, the department is one of the highest-ranking programs in its field in Turkey in terms of admission scores. Having produced nearly 500 graduates to date, many of our alumni have found employment and begun practicing their profession immediately upon graduation.

Although the medium of instruction in our department is Turkish, education is also provided in English and Italian. Almost all of the courses are heavily focused on Social Sciences. Courses such as Archaeology, History, Art History, Social Psychology, Mythology, and Geography are some of these.

The Tourist Guiding department of the Çeşme Faculty of Tourism has increasingly made its name known in the sector day by day, and it has become possible to encounter guides who graduated from our department all over Turkey and even abroad.

History of the Tourist Guiding Profession

Tourist guiding, which has recently become one of the most popular professions especially in our country, is not actually a new profession. It is not known exactly when this profession, practiced since ancient times, first emerged. However, due to increased production after settling into a sedentary lifestyle, people found time to engage in other activities and ponder divine matters. As a result, they had to establish relations with one another and travel to exchange their surplus production for goods they needed. We can give the business trips made by Assyrian merchants to Anatolia in the 18th century BC as an example of these travels for trade. During these travels, merchants stayed in hotels called ‘wabartum’ established along the routes.

The first guides recorded in written sources in the world are mentioned as Egyptian priests. However, the Olympic games that began in the 7th century BC marked the beginning of organized travel and brought tourist guiding with it. ‘Historia’, written by Herodotus, is considered the beginning of travel writing as it has been completely preserved. In the Roman period, we can mention two famous Anatolian guides: Strabo and Pausanias. Pausanias's ‘Periegesis tes Hellados’ is essentially a guidebook. Two words were used for a guide in Ancient Greek:

1. Periegetai (one who leads/shows around)
2. Exegetai (one who explains/narrates)

Even before the history of architecture began, people went to see certain natural wonders. However, they had different reasons than ours. They felt closer to their gods on a snowy mountain peak, in an underground cave, in a grove, or at the edge of a cliff. They visited many natural beauties such as lakes, rivers like the Nile, Euphrates, and Maeander, volcanoes, and travertines, making them the subject of literary works. Later, man-made wonders began to attract visitors. Ancient tourists, like us, preferred the ancient to the modern. But there was a fundamental difference; they did not distinguish between legendary and real history as strictly as we do. To them, history began in the very ancient times recounted in mythological stories.

One of the most important factors in individuals' travel is roads. With the development of roads in the ancient period, travels increased, and various resting facilities were established on these important travel routes. The most important of these roads in the Roman period were the ‘Via Regalis’, ‘Via Flaminia’, ‘Via Aemilia’, ‘Via Aurelia’, and ‘Via Egnatia’. Accommodation facilities were built every 20-30 km on these roads. Especially after traveling by carriages began, these roads were arranged and made more suitable for travel. Even today, it is possible to see the tracks of carriage wheels in some ancient cities.

Tourism and tourist guiding acquiring a nature similar to today's only occurred in the years following the Industrial Revolution. A one-day train excursion organized by Thomas Cook in England in 1851 is considered the beginning of modern tourism.

The history of guiding in our country dates back to the late 19th century. With the declaration of the Tanzimat in 1839, relations with Europe in the fields of education, fine arts, and trade developed, and the number of foreigners living in Istanbul increased. In parallel with the developments in travel in Europe, the commencement of the Orient-Express train services between Paris and Istanbul on June 5, 1883, and the Ottomans' support of Western powers in the Crimean War caused Westerners to sympathize with the country and intensified visits for purposes such as trade and tourism.

With this development, tourist guiding, which began to be seen in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century, was of great importance in terms of the country's promotion and national security. Two years after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, strict rules were introduced regarding guiding with the Decree on Translators and Guides for Foreign Travelers dated November 8, 1925, and numbered 2730. The most important issue the decree focused on was the training of translator guides, but since there was no organization related to touristic activities, the examination requirement for determining the qualifications of the guides remained on paper.

The first regulation regarding tourist guiding was published on September 3, 1971, under the name Translator Guide Courses and Translator Guide Regulation, numbered 13945. This regulation was amended on March 21, 1974, taking the name Professional Tourist Guiding Regulation, and underwent some changes in 1981 and 1983. The Professional Tourist Guiding Regulation, which entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette numbered 19152 on July 2, 1986, also underwent some changes and was published under the new name Professional Tourist Guiding Regulation in the Official Gazette dated November 25, 2005, and numbered 16004. Today, in addition to the courses opened by the Ministry, tourist guides are also trained through two-year associate degree and four-year undergraduate programs of universities.

The number of certified professional tourist guides licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is over 9,000 today. The Ege University Tourist Guiding department has a large share in this number, graduating at least 40 students each year.

Useful Links

Professional Tourist Guiding Regulation
Union of Chambers of Tourist Guides (TUREB)
Izmir Chamber of Tourist Guides (İZRO)
T.R. Ministry of Culture and Tourism
Aegean Guides Blog Page

Academic Staff

 


Ege Üniversitesi

EGE UNIVERSITY

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Ege Üniversitesi Çeşme Turizm Fakültesi 35945 Dalyan/Çeşme/İZMİR
Telephone: 0 (232) 724 9522 - Fax;: 0 (232) 724 9529
E-Mail: turizm@mail.ege.edu.tr
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