Abstract:

Tourism activities started in the world in parallel with industrial developments. Paving the way for the transportation sector, the developing industry enabled people to go many places easier and faster. Another positive contribution of industry to tourism was that fairs began to be organised in order to find new markets for the produced goods. While bringing business people together, these fairs organised in central cities have allowed cities to present their natural, historical and architectural beauties and cultural values to their visitors as well.Affecting the Ottoman Empire in a similar way, this development in the world made tourism activities begin. The fact that Ottoman cities, particularly Istanbul, were connected to important centers of Europe and the world by sea and rail road accelerated this process. Encompassing the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, tourism activities in the Ottoman country were analysed in this study. Centres in the country that foreign tourists liked, tourist guiding which emerged as a new profession in this period, main elements of tourism like hotels and guesthouses were dwelled upon. At the end of the study in which second-hand sources and documents from the Presidency of the State Archives of Turkey Ottoman Archieve were made use of, it was presented that tourists from many countries of the Western world had visited the Ottoman Empire and those tourists focused on important centers of the country, especially Istanbul, in terms of geographical, historical and religious aspects, and absolutely wanted to see its cultural values as well. Moreover, it was also understood that the state, realizing the importance of this newly-developing sector, had made certain legal arrangements for the solution of the problems that arised.

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