Some of the deserted stalls at the Doha International Book Fair at the Doha Exhibition Centre. Pictures: Kamutty VP
by Raynald C Rivera
The Doha International Book Fair has been a dull affair this year, with few visitors and meagre sales, which exhibitors and visitors blame on poor organisation and a dearth of books in languages other than Arabic.
Considering the long duration of the fair, it is surprising that most of the exhibitors are complaining that it failed to meet their expectations in terms of sales, with many of them hardly selling a book in a day.
The eleven-day event, which started on December 12 and ends today, has witnessed few book lovers visiting the vast Doha Exhibition Centre, where 419 publishers from 27 countries are offering books mostly in Arabic.
While some blame the National Day celebrations for the meagre turnout, others say mediocre planning by the organisers has led to the dismal failure of the event this year.
Aside from the fact that it was scheduled in the middle of the month, when people do not have much money to spend, there was obviously inadequate publicity for the fair, which has been running for 23 years now, participants said.
Poor sales
“Sales this time are very bad compared to last year,” said a surprised Ahmad Saad of Dar Al Roqui, who said it was hard to identify any single reason for the decline in sales compared to last year, when the fair fell on the same dates.
Nurul Haq of Qatar-based Abu Karbal Bookshop was of the same view, and said the fair was scheduled at the wrong time to coincide with preparations and celebration of the National Day.
“Compared to last year, sales this year were very bad, especially on the first seven days. It is only now that sales are picking up,” he said, adding that their revenue was down 30 percent from last year.
He said they had been participating in the book fair for the last 12 years, and the best edition of the fair so far was in 2009.
“In 2009, the fair started on December 31 and ended on January 10, so people had money to buy books, but this year it started in the middle of the month and coincided with the National Day,” he said.
Wael Moussa of Abu Dhabi University Library, United Arab Emirates, cited the same reasons for disappointing sales.
“People could not visit the fair because they were busy with the National Day, so sales were very bad. And because it is the middle of the month, they don’t have money to purchase books,” said Moussa, adding that rains this week may also have deterred people from going out, making matters worse for the exhibitors at the fair.
Ibrahim M Al Qadi, from a Jordan-based publishing company, said those who had money, especially Qataris, and schoolchildren, who are major customers at the fair, were kept away by the National Day celebrations.
“After the celebrations we noticed more people coming to the fair,” he said, and expressed the hope that they could increase their revenue in the last two days of the fair.
Lack of publicity
But other exhibitors, especially regular participants in one of the longest fairs in Doha, don’t blame the scheduling for the poor turnout this year, noting that last year’s event also coincided with National Day celebrations.
“We have been wondering why there has been poor turnout this year, because I remember that last year’s book fair also coincided with the National Day, but sales were good then,” said an exhibitor from Sharjah selling educational material for children.
She said very few students had visited the book fair, especially in the first week, when there were days when not even a hundred students turned up.
She suspected lack of promotion could be the reason for the poor turnout.
“Perhaps they did not have enough advertisements for the fair, that’s why many people don’t know about this,” she said, adding that on some days she and some other exhibitors did not sell a single book.
Not for everyone
Many of those who did visit the book fair felt let down by the paltry offerings in languages other than Arabic. Despite the fair being billed as an ‘international’ affair, visitors, particularly expatriates, scouring the long line of stalls found few of them selling books in English or other foreign languages.
“There are many books in English here, so there’s no need to bring those books. Besides, this fair was intended to offer Arabic books,” said Ahmad Saad of Dar Al Roqui, a Lebanese publishing house which has been in the business for more than two decades.
Saad said his stall had many books, mostly for children, which had been translated from English to Arabic.
Stressing the huge demand for Arabic books in the region, Khaled Al Saleh of Dar Al Kettab Tarbawi said English books were much more expensive than Arabic ones.
Participating in the fair for the fourth year, the Saudi company offers mostly educational books and teachers’ manuals, some of which have been translated from Arabic to English.
“Because this fair is being held in an Arab country which is composed of an Arabic-speaking population, it is logical for us to bring Arabic books,” said Wael Moussa.
“There are not many English books because this fair does not attract English-speaking people,’ said Ibrahim M Al Qadi, adding that some of the publishers did not offer English books here because Qatar had a relatively small population compared to Saudi Arabia, for example, which hosts a larger number of expatriates. English-speaking expatriates, he argued, normally would not prefer to buy books here.
No Internet impact
The thin sales at the fair notwithstanding, most of the publishers were upbeat about the book publishing industry, confident that the electronic media would not affect them.
They said big demand from educational institutions, and the inherent appeal of books to readers, would sustain the industry despite the increasing popularity and accessibility of the Internet.
“We cater to colleges and universities, and all our books cannot be accessed through the Internet,” said Wael Moussa, whose firm offers books on personality development and children’s books, among others.
Books, he said, gave more joy to readers than reading online, which could have a detrimental effect on a person’s health in the long run.
“Books are handy and can be taken anywhere, while the Internet is not available everywhere in the world,” he added.
Fathi Jameel of Saudi-based Dar Touaiq was also of the view that the Internet did not affect the industry.
Nurul Haq from Qatar said the Internet did not affect them because they supplied books mostly to colleges and universities.
“Even those who search the Internet frequently still need books because not everything is provided by the Internet, and colleges and universities need books, and don’t depend on the Internet,” said Al Qadi from Jordan.
However, he bemoaned the fact that there were few takers for his mostly religious books, some of them translated into English, as the Ministry of Awqaf offers such books free of cost here.
“We offer all types of books, especially religious ones, but they don’t attract buyers because the Ministry of Awqaf offers these books for free every year, so no one buys these books.”
He also complained that the organisers had favoured publishers selling the Holy Quran, by providing them free space at the fair.
THE PENINSULA
