The Chennai Book Fair set a new record of 1.2 million visitors last year and now looks set to just miss its ambitious 2 million target for 2019.
On Monday alone, reports New Indian Express, 60,000 turned out, and at the 800,000 visitor mark the organisers said they expected another 10 lakh (one million) before the event closes on 20 January.
S.Vairavan, president of the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) said at the weekend,
Sales have gone up since last year and so has the footfall. We are expecting to see almost twice the number of visitors as last year.
No values yet for the reported increase in sales, but it’s worth noting that in 2018 books to the (US equivalent) value of $2.3 million were sold.
We’ll bring you the latest from Chennai after the event concludes on Sunday.
Meanwhile we await with interest the numbers from the Kerala Literature Festival and the New Delhi World Book Fair that each wound up on 13 January, and are excitedly watching the build up to the Jaipur Literary Festival that starts on 24 January and the Kolkata International Book Fair that kicks off on 30 January.
It’s early days, but on trends from 2018 and the first numbers from the Arab markets, it looks very much like 2019 will see global book fair and festival visitor number and sales value records shattered once again.
