Şerif Yenen
Şerif Yenen is a Turkish travel specialist, tour guide, travel writer, film-maker, international keynote speaker and lecturer. He wrote Turkish Odyssey in English, the “first guidebook of Turkey ever written by a Turk”. His latest work, published in 2025, is a comprehensive, revised, and expanded three-volume edition of his original guidebook, Turkish Odyssey.
Yenen gives lectures about travel and Turkish history and culture, the majority of which are in academic communities. His guidebooks are used as textbooks or are on suggested reading lists at various universities, and his articles and columns are published in international magazines and national newspapers.
Biography
Early life and education
Şerif Yenen was born into a middle-class family in the town of Ödemiş near İzmir in 1963. After completing middle school in Ödemiş, when he was fourteen, he passed the entrance exams and became a military student at the Kuleli Military High School in Istanbul, where the instruction was mainly in English. After high school he was accepted in the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at the University of Istanbul as a military student. After graduation from the university in 1985, he became an officer in the Turkish Armed Forces, and taught English as a second language for four years at the Maltepe Military High School in İzmir. He left the Army in 1989 and attended tourist guide training programs offered by the Ministry of Tourism of Turkey and became qualified as a national tourist guide.Career
While working as a tourist guide, he published his guidebook, Turkish Odyssey in English, in 1997. The content and the design of his website gained attention in the media and won numerous awards. He published the multimedia version of the same work as a CD-ROM in 2001. In 2022, an updated edition of the Turkish version, Anadolu Destanı, was published by a local publisher. In 2025, Yenen released a comprehensive, revised, and expanded three-volume edition of Turkish Odyssey, available in both print and e-book formats.Yenen has held elected positions on the boards of various organizations in the tourism sector:
- President of the Istanbul Tourist Guides' Guild 2002-2015
- President of the Federation of Turkish Tourist Guide Associations 2002 - 2013
- President of the Tourist Guides Foundation, 2002 – 2009
- Executive board member of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations, and editor-in-chief of the Guidelines Internetion@l magazine, 2003 – 2007
- Vice President of Turkish Travel Agencies and Tourist Guides Assembly, established as a tourism council within TOBB 2006 - 2013.
- Member of the Consultative Committee for Istanbul 2010 Cultural Capital of Europe
Şerif Yenen, who has been attracting media attention for his endeavors as the chairman of IRO and TUREB to make sure that the occupational bill of law for the tourist guides of Turkey is passed by the parliament, played a decisive role in 2012 during the process of drawing up and passage of the law, which had been much anticipated by the tourist guides for the past 40 years. As a result of his endeavors, the occupational law was promulgated in the Official Gazette and entered into force on June 22, 2012. Thus, tourist guiding was defined as a profession in Turkey.
He has given private guide services to celebrities and statesmen, among whom are Pope Benedict XVI, Oprah Winfrey, Princess Michael of Kent, and Lester Holt of the Today Show.
Yenen's second guidebook was the 488-page Quick Guide Istanbul, followed by the "Istanbul", "Culture" and "Turkey" series of his Quick Guide Pamphlets. He produced a travel documentary film on Istanbul in 2014: Istanbul Unveiled. Şerif Yenen gives lessons on Anatolian Civilizations and the Cultural Heritage of Turkey at the Bilgi and Boğaziçi Universities as a part-time instructor. He is also an international speaker who regularly gives presentations at institutions abroad, notably the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to his positions at various tourism organizations, he is consulted on TV programs and juries.