Haytham El Hag Ali, head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation, announced that the number of people who visited the Cairo International Book Fair in its 49th edition reached 650,000 in its first two days.
The 49th Cairo International Book Fair was inaugurated on 26 January and will continue until 10 February under the theme of “Soft Powers…How?”
Ali explained that the number of visitors on the first day of the fair reached 300,000 visitors, and on Sunday, the second day, the number reached nearly 350,000 visitors.
He also added that the sales rate increased by about 16% compared to last year.
For its part, the Ministry of Culture assured that the fair is ready to receive 5 million visitors.
It is worth mentioning that Algeria is this edition’s guest of honour and the fair’s person of the year is the late writer Abdel Rahaman El-Sharakawy.
Ali said that the fair chose El-Sharakawy since he is a great example of the significance of soft power.
Earlier, the head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation announced in a press release that this edition will witness the participation of 27 countries, including 15 Arab, two African, and 10 other countries, with 848 publishers.
He explained that the publishers will include 367 Arab, two African, and 10 non-Arab or African publishers.
Finally, this edition includes many new activities such as increasing the number of children books and establishing theatres, cinema halls, and fine arts halls.
