Faruk Pekin was born in Menemen, İzmir in 1947. He completed high School at İzmir Atatürk Lisesi and in 1969 he graduated from Robert College Chemical Engineering School. He was the President of Robert College Student Union (RKYOTB) in the 1968-69 academic years. He won the “Research Award”s in 1966, 1967 and 1968 from the literary magazine “İzlerimiz”, published by Robert College. He was also the manager of the “Robert College Cultural Weeks” organizations in 1967, 1968 and 1969.
He worked as a journalist and trade union expert for many years. He is a professional guide. He taught the tourism guide preparatory courses of the Ministry of Tourism Guide Courses, at the tourism faculties of Marmara University and Boğaziçi University. He was the president of the Cultural Awareness Foundation, a non-profit organization, for many years where he also taught “History of Religions”, “Hinduism”, “Buddhism”, and “Symbols” in the seminars of Cultural Awareness Foundation”.
He shared his travel photos with other travellers under the name of “Photography Colloquies” for many years. He had made many other Colloquies on Cultural Tourism, he took place in symposiums. He was the subject of many interviews and articles.
He is the CEO and founder of FEST Travel Agency for 30 years. He is the leading name of culture tourism in Turkey. Since 1988 he has been organizing Adım Adım İstanbul® (Strolling Through İstanbul) tours which guide over thousands of İstanbulites in rediscovering İstanbul and has since added his Köşe Bucak Türkiye (Turkey tours) and Köşe Bucak Dünya tours (World Tours).
Faruk Pekin is the Ex-President of the Committee of Cultural Tourism (nowadays Honorary President) within TURSAB (The Union of the Travel Agencies of Turkey) and is also the advisor to the President of TURSAB and was a member of the Advisory Committee, which was established by a special law for Istanbul 2010: European Capital City.
Faruk Pekin is a member of the Board of Directors of ISTO established in Brussels, which has 140 members including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey and many tourism organizations, from 35 different countries.
In the first “Tourism Awards” prepared by Directorate of Culture and Tourism of İstanbul in 2008, he received the “Best Event Award” for Adım Adım İstanbul® (Strolling Through İstanbul) tours.
In many different publications such as Skylife Magazine of Turkish Airlines, Cumhuriyet (national newspaper), Hürriyet (national newspaper) he has written articles on different subjects.
He is an expert on the Cappadocia Region and Istanbul in Turkey Among his itineraries, which he can guide without the help of local guides, are Nepal, North and South India, Prague, Budapest, Andalusia, Cairo, Nile Valley, Jordan, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Tibet, Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Morocco, Scandinavia, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Ireland, Scotland etc.
He has produced and presented the program “Tarihe Yolculuk (Journey into History)” and “Şehrin Sırları” (The Secrets of the City-İstanbul) on Skyturk TV between 2010-2014.
