DOHA: The 26th Doha International Book Fair which concluded at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) yesterday attracted more visitors compared to last year, a senior official has said.
Turkey was the of guest of honour at the 10-day exhibition opened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 2.
Abdullah Nasser Al Ansari, Director of Public Libraries Department at the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage and director of the fair told Qatar News Agency that the annual event is gaining more popularity locally and internationally.
This year the fair featured more stalls — a total of 820 compared to 780 last year.
“The number of visitors also increased compared to last year,” said Al Ansari.
He said a major factor that attracted more visitors this year was the timing of the exhibition that did not clash with school examinations. “We worked together with the Supreme Education Council in this regard. They provided us with the necessary proposals about school programmes,” he added.
A special committee was set up to provide books for school libraries and schedule visits by school students and staff.
The organisers had also coordinated with the GCC secretariat to make sure the exhibition timing did not clash with similar exhibitions in the GCC, especially in Sharjah and Kuwait. Turkey being the guest of honour, 25 leading Turkish publishers took part in the exhibition. Turkish teams presented a variety of arts and cultural activities including the traditional Turkish style of book-making and Turkish traditional dresses. Such events attracted a large number of visitors, said Al Ansari.
By selecting the sprawling QNCC as the venue, the organisers were able to provide more parking space. The exhibition was held over an area of 20,000sqm. “This year we provided more buses for transporting visitors,” said Al Ansari.
A series of seminars, symposia, art and cultural events and religious lectures as well as special activities for children were also held on the sidelines of the exhibition.
On complaints about the high prices of books, the official said that the prices of books go up every year, like other commodities. This is because of the increase in the cost of paper, shipping cost, storing, transportation and hotel expenses.
A total of 475 publishers from 26 countries took part in the exhibition, including 393 Arab, 34 non-Arab and 66 publishers specialising in children’s books and 14 in IT and computers.
The Peninsula
