Tehran Intl. Book Fair attracts over 5 million visitors

TEHRAN,May 12(MNA) -- Over 5 million people have visited the 25th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) over the past nine days, the TIBF director announced on Friday. Bahman Dorri said that over 5.1 million people visited the fair, Iran’s most prestigious book industry event. About 235,000 people visited the fair on the first day, 460,000 on the second and 700,000 on the third, Dorri who also Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Cultural Affairs added. On fourth day about 410,000 people visited the gala, on fifth day the number of visitors reached 430,000, 600,000 people visited the fair on sixth, 580,000 on seventh, and 600,000 on eighth day. On ninth day, Thursday, which considered as semi-holiday in Iran, the number of visitors reached 1.320 which as Dorri mentioned was “a unique statistics in 24 editions of the fairs”. The number of visitors is usually figured out at the entrance doors via the organizations, the vans and buses, which are active in the fair, Dorri previously had said. In addition, Dorri warned people who are suffering from heart disease not to visit the fair on Friday since it will be probably very crowded. “Tehran International Book Fair will run until Saturday evening and it will not be extended,” Dorri added. Over 2,400 Iranian publishers and 1600 publishers from 77 countries are offering their products at the fair this year. The fair will be running until May 12 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla.