Attendance at Frankfurt by Asian publishers may exceed pre-pandemic levels, according to a report in the Bookseller. Fair organisers say that numbers from China in particular are set to reach, if not exceed 2019 levels of attendance. Some 160 exhibitors from China are expected this year, compared to 113 in 2022.
Organises of the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair (18-22 October) say: Last year, with some travel restrictions due to the pandemic still in place, we still had fewer exhibitors from Asia than usual in Frankfurt. This year, we are pleased to see that we will again reach the level of 2019 in regard to exhibitors from Asia, and even exceed it.
Curtis Brown head of translation rights Sophie Baker said that the teams Frankfurt schedules include more publishers from Asia this year. We have more meetings with Chinese, Korean and Japanese editors than at recent fairs and some people are also visiting London to take meetings before the fair itself. We are thrilled to be seeing some of our Asian co-agents in person for the first time since before the pandemic which shows restrictions have eased.
Similarly, Lucy Barry, international rights agent at Peters Fraser & Dunlop, said she has seen an increase in meeting requests from the Asian markets, particularly Japan and Korea. It is wonderful to see these publishers returning to the European fairs and Im very much looking forward to meeting them in person after so many years of Zoom meetings. She added: Weve also noticed an increase in business in these markets, particularly from China where we have closed some strong rights deals in the past few months.
