The global book market is way bigger than we think. And we only have to look at the 2.7 million people who went to a book fair this month in Algeria to realise just how much bigger it might be.
The Algiers International Book Fair this year for the first time beat Sharjah in the footfall stakes, with 2.7 million visitors taking the demi-crown as Africa’s and MENA’s second largest book fair by footfall after Cairo, and fourth globally, behind only Bangladesh (the month long Ekushey Boi Mela pulled in a beyond humungous six million visitors in February), the aforementioned Cairo (3.6 million) and Spain, which had an exceptional year, clocking 3 million passing through its gates.
Sharjah held the prize for the largest trade fair, thanks to its ever expanding Professional Conference, but saw visitor numbers fall this year, for reasons as yet unclear, to “only” 1.2 million. Still numbers most western book fairs can only dream of (the Madrid book fair is a total outlier in this regard), and still ahead of pretty much every other book fair out there.
All told, more than 50 million people attended book fairs around the world, outside the USA, this year. Just how many more is impossible to say, but what we can safely say is that the global book market is way bigger than we think. And we only have to look at the 2.7 million people who went to a book fair this month in Algeria to realise just how much bigger it might be.
