THE 30th Doha International Book Fair (DIBF) has brought its curtains down by winning the hearts and minds of thousands of book lovers in Qatar. With meticulous planning and neat organisation, the Ministry of Culture and Sports has presented 10 wonderful days for all bibliophiles who visited the Fair.
After all, the Fair highlighted the fact that though the technological blessings like Internet, smartboards, tablets and other digital devices have reshaped the reading and learning habits of people around the world, a good majority still prefer traditional way of reading books in print form. The Fair attracted around 320,000 visitors and it sold over 210,000 books. The daily turnout of book lovers at the Fair was 31,994. Simply amazing!
The Ministry of Culture and Sports deserves a huge round of applause for making this big event a great success. By organising workshops and other activities on the sidelines of the Fair, the Ministry made the event more attractive and productive. As many as 453 activities were organised at the Fair, in which about 74 guests participated, while the seminars and lectures were attended by 3,678 people.
There was a special workshop for children and it was attended by 2,700 people and 685 schools. The Ministry was highly concerned about the contents and it provided an opportunity for bibliophiles to get rare varieties of books.
As many as 335 publishing houses from 31 countries participated in the Fair and the number of the pavilions of Arabic books was 559, represented by 228 publishing houses, and the number of foreign pavilions was 91, represented by 35 foreign publishers. The Reading Garden set by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment at the Fair also added up to its charm.
Proving the stereotype that book fairs are always for writers and intellectuals wrong, DIBF made all possible ways to make it equally enjoyable for all.
“It is not just a place to sell books by increasing the number of publishing houses and the number of participating countries, but really a place to enrich cultures,” said the Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali.
The Fair also succeeded in sending the message of tolerance across the world. With no hesitation one can say the popularity of the Fair is getting higher every year and book lovers will definitely have even more surprises in the editions to come.
