PIECES FROM OTTOMAN TOURISM HISTORY: ERNEST ARMAN’S EFFORTS TO SET UP A TOURISM AGENCY
Researchers of tourism history suggest that tourism, in today’s context, started with industrial revolution. Advancements in industrial revolution set ground for mass tourism. Some progresses in the transportation technology made a great contribution to the advance of tourism. Especially, the number of individuals take part in tourism activities increased substantially when rail lines and steamboats became widespread. In parallel to the advance of mass tourism, some incorporation efforts were recognized in tourism sector in the first half of 19th century. Beginning from 1840’s, Britishman Thomas Cook organized package tours via the office he founded. Besides, exhibitions and fairs held in cities such as London, Paris, Vienna helped tourism flourish. In accordance with the samples in Europe, a fair was held in İstanbul in 1863 named Sergi-i Umum-i Osmani which is accepted as the beginning of the Turkish history of tourism. Since then, Ottoman lands which had been travel points for the initerants became an important centre for European tourists. In the meantime, some attempts were made to set up tourism agencies to attract more tourists in Ottoman lands. One of them was the tourism agency which German Ernest Arman tried to set up during World War I. In this study, such issues as the occurance of Arman’s tourism agency idea, the application he made to the government and its assesment and the viewpoint of Ottoman government to this subject are tried to be explained.

Keywords
Ernest Arman, Ottoman Empire, Travel Agent, Tourism.