Interest in e-books, foreign titles at Hong Kong Book Fair

The 2010 edition of the Hong Kong Book Fair, which ran from July 21 through 27, attracted about 920,000 visitors - up 2 percent from 2009, according to a report released by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council on July 28. During the fair, the Council surveyed the background and reading habits of 915 visitors, finding a digital-savvy crowd interested in foreign-language publications.

Asia's biggest book fair in terms of numbers, the Hong Kong Book Fair has become a cultural phenomenom throughout its 21-year history, attracting huge numbers of visitors, many of whom historically line up overnight for author autographs, book bargains, and cultural events. Of the 920,000 people who attended the fair's 2010 edition, about 13,000 were tourists coming mainly from the Chinese mainland, Macau, and Taiwan. More than 270 cultural events and 510 exhibitors were among the fair's offerings.

For the first time, too, the fair included a major focus on developments in digital publishing, a topic that was also the subject of the concurrent Asian Publishing Conference. In the survey conducted at the fair, 25 percent of respondents reported having bought e-books in the past, with mobile phones being noted as the most popular devices for e-reading.

China has one of the largest publishing industries in the world and its demand for English-language titles is growing. The survey results highlight that trend, with 35 percent of participants having said they attended with the goal of buying publications in foreign languages.

The Hong Kong event ranks just behind the Beijing Book Fair in terms of importance in Asia; that fair, scheduled from August 30 through September 9, has been gaining international importance as publishers set their sights on the huge Chinese market - what some call the "final frontier" in publishing.

The next Hong Kong Book Fair is scheduled for July 15-21, 2011.

http://hkbookfair.com/en