Many visited this Chennai Book Fair despite the Covid-19 pandemic
Posted on: 10/Mar/2021 9:20:39 AM
The risk which the organisers took in conducting the 44th book fair in Chennai has paid off!!
On Tuesday, the 2 week Book Fair came to a close in Chennai is well known. Normally, this book fair would be conducted in January and this time due to Covid-19 pandemic it was held in February.
Though the turnout was less than normal, the organisers (BAPASI or Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India) were happy. This was informed by the president of BAPSI, Mr. R.S. Shanmugam. In the normal circumstances, the Chennai book fair would be visited by more than 12lakh people but this time the number fell down to 8lakhs. It must be noted that the book fair witnessed a business of Rs 10 to Rs 12 cores this year and that was 75percent compared to the last year.
Vice-president of BAPASI, Mr. Olivannan expressed his thoughts about the book fair. He shed light on how this time book fairs around the world and in major cities in India did not take place. He added that there were concerns while conducting the book fair in Chennai and how the turnout has disproved the concerns.
It is worthy to mention that every year the book fair happened in January during the Pongal festival vacations of 8 holidays including weekends. The turnout at the book fair was good this time inspite of not having many holidays. More women visited the book fair this year and this was according to popular writer Mr. Ramakrishnan. He spoke about how in their stall of the publishing house Desanthiri atleast 40% to 50% of books were purchased by women. In this book fair this time, the turnouts of senior persons were less due to Covid-19 pandemic. The grandchildren visited the book fair and coordinated with their grandparents over phone and purchased some books
Truth is that several potential customers belonging to the IT industry did not visit the book fair as they stayed back in their hometowns due to the work from home option. All the 13 new releases of the publications were received well and this was mentioned by Mr. Manivannan, sales manager of Kizhakku Pathippagam.
