Details are still emerging, but a press release from the 2019 New Delhi World Book Fair this week confirms visitor numbers exceeded 1 million. That’s just shy of the 1.2 million the NDWBF told me turned out in 2018, but the final numbers may yet go up.

The event opened with Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister for Human
Resource Development, asserting that the New Delhi World Book Fair was,

Arguably Asia’s biggest book fair and…would soon become the world’s biggest book fair.

The UAE’s Sharjah International Book Fair would have to disagree.

Sharjah International Book Fair sets new visitor record – 2.52 million – as Algiers Int. Book Fair footfall declines to “only” 1.1 million

As for becoming the world’s largest book fair, that honour currently goes to Egypt’s Cairo International Book Fair.

Books, Pyramids and Sun. The world’s biggest book fair will be 50 in January. And yes, it’s in Egypt

But even in India the New Delhi World Book Fair is not the largest. Take Kolkata, for example.

Iran debuts, but Pakistan won’t be at the 43rd Kolkata IBF. Can 2018’s 2.2 million visitors and $3.17 million in book sales be beaten?

Or Chennai.

India’s 2019 Chennai Book Fair saw 1.5 million visitors spend $2.5 million on books in 2019. Will records fall again in January?

While many others – Hyderabad, for example – regularly equal the one million attendance at New Delhi.

While western publishing parties, 1 million expected at India’s Hyderabad Book Fair. The global book market has no time for holidays

More on this story as further details emerge.