2.2 million visitors to the International Book Fair of Algiers

(Reuters) – The number of visitors to the 23rd session, which ended Saturday, reached a record 2.2 million, announced the International Book Fair of Algiers.

The previous exhibition session in 2017 had approximately 1.7 million visitors.

The director of the exhibition, Hamido Massoudi, said during a seminar that the last day of the exhibition attracted a large number of visitors.

He added that the number of participating publishing houses rose to 1016 after the withdrawal of an Algerian publishing house and the closure of an Iranian pavilion "for reasons legal and objective "relating to the violation of the internal law of the exhibition.

He noted that over the course of twelve days, the exhibition had been marked by the withdrawal of eight titles, which contained only "books on magic and witchcraft", not to mention the names of the houses of Edition or countries of origin of these works.

The exhibition program included signing ceremonies for modern publications, intellectual seminars, workshops and poetry nights, attended by more than 90 writers and novelists, including 65 Algerian writers.

The People's Republic of China was the guest of honor of the 23rd session of the exhibition, which bore the slogan "The book meets us". Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hailed the opening of the Chinese novelist Mo Yan, Nobel Laureate in Literature, and awarded him the National Order of Merit.