Over one million visitors attend Sharjah International Book Fair
In the United Arab Emirates, the 33rd annual Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) received a record of 1.4 million visitors to the fair, which ran from 5 to 15 November, reports Gulf News. The 2014 Arabic and English language fair became the most successful fair in three decades, after a 45% increase in visitors compared to last year. The fair included 1256 publishing houses from 59 countries and made AED178.15 million (A$55.7 million) in sales revenue. On 11 November alone, a record of 46,000 students from 350 girls’ schools attended the fair, as the fair includes two days for girls’ schools and two days for boys’ schools. The book fair hashtag #SIBF14 had 17,500 tweets in Arabic and 6000 tweets in English. Speakers at the fair include author Dan Brown, Egyptian actor Adel Imam and former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani. The fair also included a bilingual English-Arabic library conference run in association with the American Library Assocation for three days from 11 November. ‘This event will continue to be a platform for the exchange of literary thoughts and energy for people from all over the world,’ said SIBF director Ahmad Bin Rakkad Al Ameri. ‘Next year will be even bigger, we are already planning for it.’
Category: International news