Can you survive as a tourist in Ýstanbul for one full day with only $5 in your pocket? Hardly, many today would say. You might have made it, though, if you had gone back in time to the ‘60s or early ‘70s.
Along the way, however, you must not have forgotten to pick up the 1970 guidebook called ’Turkey on $5 a day” by Tom Brosnahan, who has made a reputation for himself as one of the most prominent travel writers on Turkey over the last three decades.
Brosnahan opened up to Today’s Zaman and disclosed the reasons behind his not-so-secret passion for Turkey. Coming as a Peace Corps volunteer to teach English with barely enough money in his backpack to get by, Brosnahan was fascinated with the beauty of this country, which was virtually unknown to many Americans then. He fell in love with Anatolia and decided to give up his university teaching career after completing his Fulbright Scholar Program and graduate studies and exclusively dedicated himself to writing on travel. Today he is the author of 40 books -- several of which have become bestsellers. His books have sold over 4 million copies worldwide and have been translated into many languages. Brosnahan is also a consultant and a contributor to leading magazines and corporations and an owner of several leading travel Web sites, including one on Turkey (www.TurkeyTravelPlanner.com), which is very popular and has received over 4 million page hits this year alone.
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Tom studied history at Tufts University. He joined the Peace Corps in 1967 and chose Turkey as his first choice of country. ’I arrived in Ankara in September 1967 and was assigned by the Peace Corps to teach English at Bornova Maarif Koleji (later Ýzmir Koleji, now Ýzmir Anadolu Lisesi),” he says, adding, ’Turkey was relatively undeveloped then.” He was struck by Turkish hospitality. ’Everyone was friendly even though Turkish-American relations were sometimes tense, in part because of America’s actions in the Vietnam War,” he notes. When asked what first comes to mind when thinking of Turkey, Brosnahan said, ’I must say ’the people’,” adding the caveat: ’This is impossible to answer. The food? The people? Its natural beauty? Turkey for me now is a whole world of its own, from Ýstanbul -- the city I love most in the world -- to Erzurum and Doðubeyazýt.”
His first book, ’Turkey on $5 a day,” simply started as a Peace Corps project but was later picked up by Frommer’s and got published. He notes: ’I wanted to introduce Turkey to American tourists. They knew Europe, Greece and Israel, but not Turkey, which has more to offer tourists than either Greece or Israel. I thought that having a book in a major guidebook series such as Frommer’s would ’demystify’ Turkey and encourage people to visit. The response was excellent,” Brosnahan says.
Turkey witnessed a turning point in its tourism sector in the mid ’80s when late President Turgut Özal opened the economy up by removing barriers and encouraging tourism to increase foreign currency reserves of the Turkish Central Bank. Tom seized the opportunity and published his new Turkey guide through Lonely Planet in 1985. It was a huge success, selling tens of thousands of copies in several languages. He also worked with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism on occasion. Speaking on this, he says: ’I would not presume to advise them on strategy. They know much better than I do.” He was simply content. ’It was wonderful to be able to ’give something back’ to Turkey, a country and people who have meant so much in my life,” he says. Brosnahan gave up guidebook writing in 2001, though. Instead he wrote a humorous travel memoir -- ’Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea,” which has become a great success.
Brosnahan is no foreigner to technology and he did not hesitate to enter into new innovative ventures even though he ended up losing money on some. He says: ’I wrote my first seven books on a cheap Smith-Corona portable typewriter, a typical high school graduation present for someone who graduated in 1963. The first time I saw a word processor I thought, ’That can save me 30 percent of my time!’ which means a 30 percent raise in income. Within six months of buying my first computer [1982] I was 30 percent more efficient in my work.” In the early 1990s he started a computer bulletin board service (BBS) and invested $10,000 on equipment. Though this venture brought him a gold award from the Society of American Travel Writers, he did not make a dime from it. ’Financially, it was a total loss,” he laments.
Then came the Internet, a whole new way of presenting information. His loss in the BBS turned out to be a plus for him in terms of experience with computers before the dawn of the World Wide Web. Brosnahan started TurkeyTravelPlanner.com in 2002, the premier Web site for information on Turkey today.
Internet liberates writers
Brosnahan sees the Internet as the future and considers it to be liberating for writers. Quoting A.J. Liebling’s comments, he says, ’Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one,” this at a time when you had to be a millionaire to own a printing press and with the distribution of printed paper even more difficult and expensive. ’The Internet makes it possible for anyone to publish instantly, permanently, worldwide and at very low cost. A writer with a laptop computer can reach readers everywhere right away for very little money,” he adds. Brosnahan is not ready to give up his passion for the printing press, though. ’I love newspapers, magazines and books. I have published my work in them for 35 years and I still read them every day. [The] paper media will survive, but in niche markets,” he notes.
Brosnahan makes this comparison between print and online publishing: ’A hundred years ago most people rode horses. Today some still do, but not for the same reasons. Whenever I travel between Ýstanbul and Ankara, it’s by ’yataklý vagon’ (sleeper train) because I enjoy this 19th century means of transport. But far, far more people travel that route today by plane, bus and car. Media change. The Internet is already where most people go for information and communication and especially for tourism. Reading [the] paper is for pleasure.”
Brosnahan is very happy with the tourism situation in Turkey today, saying: ’Turkish tourism boomed and the world began to discover Turkey -- the real Turkey, the friendly, beautiful Turkey. Today Turkey is one of the top 10 tourism destinations in the world, probably sixth or seventh out of over 200 countries! This is an extraordinary success.” He also remembers the not-so-good old days. ’In 1967, when I first arrived, the world knew almost nothing about Turkey and most of what it knew was wrong. There was also a lot of active, negative, anti-Turkish publicity,” he notes, adding, ’The complete lack of accurate, positive information about Turkey was the reason I wrote my first guidebook.”
The most requested info on his Web site about Turkey is itinerary planning, Brosnahan notes. He explains that ’visitors to TurkeyTravelPlanner.com are usually not tourists who just want to go to a Turkish beach for a week. The visitors want to see more of the country -- Cappadocia, Ephesus, Konya, Pamukkale, the North Aegean and perhaps the Black Sea coast. They want to see it all, but they don’t have a lot of time.” He adds, ’I help them fit everything together -- especially the transport -- so their trip is as efficient and pleasant as possible.”
Lastly we asked Brosnahan to describe the most peculiar thing he experienced while in Turkey. ’When I was a Peace Corps English teacher [1967-1970], some people thought that Peace Corps volunteers must be spies. Why would young Americans learn Turkish and come all the way to the other side of the world to teach children they didn’t know? They could be pursuing careers in America. There must be some reason other than wanting to help Turkey and Turks.” He says: ’We were young and idealistic, but inexperienced, and our pay was very low. We would have made terrible spies, even if we had had anything to spy on!”
Today family reasons keep Brosnahan in the United States, and he regrets that he cannot stay in Turkey as much as he would like to apart from several visits a year.
Domestic news – Resource: Today’s Zaman
