The annual Frankfurt Book Fair - the world's largest book fair held in Frankfurt, Germany has officially returned in the context of the publishing industry recovering strongly, due to increased demand from readers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the participation of thousands of publishers from many different countries, the Fair is considered the most important event for publishers to market their products over the years. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, this year, the scale of the Fair is much smaller than previous years, with more than 2,000 publishers from 80 countries.
Accordingly, the number of visitors to the fair is limited to no more than 25,000 people per day. At the same time, they will have to present a Covid-19 vaccination certificate along with a negative test result, or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19.
The director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Juergen Boos, said that this year's fair could not take place normally as the pandemic was still a tense issue globally. However, the event still created an opportunity for the publishing industry to connect readers with authors.
In 2019, before the pandemic, 7,500 companies from more than 100 countries attended the Frankfurt Book Fair, nearly four times more than in 2021.
Publishing industry thrives during the pandemic
The 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair comes as the publishing industry has recorded positive sales in the 18 months since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, as many people around the world returned to a slower lifestyle and turned to books more during social distancing.
Print book sales in the US rose more than 8% in 2020, making it the best year for the US publishing industry in a decade. In Germany, the European Union's (EU) largest book market, online sales by bookstores rose 20% to 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion). Audiobook and e-book sales also increased significantly.
The Frankfurt Book Fair takes place from October 19 to October 24 every year. This is not only a great opportunity for publishers and book dealers, but also a project to spread reading culture to many people.
“The pandemic has shown us how important and solid books are in society,” said Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, President of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, at the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair. “With their commitment to books and great creativity, bookstores have been successful in selling their products to the market, despite the impact of the pandemic, which forced many places to close.”
