Arab News reports the numbers are out as the 5th Jeddah International Book Fair concluded. The event drew a crowd of 441,369 booklovers over ten days – an average of 44,000 per day.
There’s not much new detail to add that hasn’t already been covered here at TNPS –
but we can say that the 2019 incarnation just missed the 2018 record of 475,000 visitors.
Prince Mishaal bin Majed, Jeddah governor and chairman of the fair’s Supreme Organizing Committee, said that over its five year duration the Jeddah International Book Fair has seen 2.7 million visitors in all.
Earlier this year the Riyadh International Book Fair set a new visitor record, clocking over 1 million visitors, joining the ranks of Baghdad and Muscat and, this year, Algiers, although Algiers is usually a 2-milion visitor show, like Sharjah.
If you’re new here and this comes as a shock, given the widespread misconception that Arabs don’t read, spare a thought for the Cairo International Book Fair in Egypt, which is by visitor numbers the largest literary event in the world.
