Book Fair lacks visitors [Archives:2006/981/Local News]

SANA'A, Spet, 13 ) The 23rd Book Fair concluded its exhibition on Tuesday after 10 days of displays by than 320 publishing houses, but this year the numbers are down. There were over 100,000 subjects in different fields available at the fair.

“During the 10 days around one million people visited the book fair,” stated Fares Al-Saqaf, Chief of General Authority for the Book.

This year the number visitors is down and some think it's because of the busy time of year.

“This time is the time of elections and the very beginning of a new school year,” says Mona Al-Hamli, the officer of the General Authority for the Book.

The fair lacked some regular publishing houses with only three Lebanese publishers participating according to Al-Saqaf, noting the absence of Lebanon publishing houses.

“Our participation this year is not effective because of the Lebanon's crises. In addition books we have are actually available here in Yemen. We couldn't offer something new or bring books from Beirut due to the obstacles of the transportation,” said Awad Qasim, the manager of Al-Fiqr publishing house.
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