Week-long Hong Kong Book Fair closes with nearly 1 mln visits

HONG KONG, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The 34th Hong Kong Book Fair, organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), wrapped up on Tuesday, with an accumulated 990,000 visits.

The book fair continued its tradition of bringing people together through literature, with seminars achieving remarkable popularity and attracting many visitors from the Chinese mainland to participate, said the council's Deputy Executive Director Sophia Chong.

During the book fair, the organizer commissioned research institutes to interview more than 820 attendees to analyze the reading habits and consumption choices of book fans, the result of which reflected the appeal of the Hong Kong Book Fair as an important promotion and sales platform for the publishing industry.

The survey showed that the average amount spent by the respondents at this year's book fair reached 912 Hong Kong dollars (116.81 U.S. dollars), slightly up 4.6 percent over last year and accounting for 74 percent of the average expenditure on printed books throughout the year.

The top five categories of books are novels, comics, children's and young adult books, travel and literature, the survey indicated. Meanwhile, around 55 percent of the respondents say that their main purpose of going to the book fair is "to buy the latest books," followed by "enjoy book discounts" and "feel the cultural atmosphere of an international book fair" respectively.

The book fair ran concurrently with the HKTDC Sports and Leisure Expo and HKTDC World of Snacks, gathering some 760 exhibitors across the three fairs.