Abu Dhabi International Book Fair Cites 400,000 Attendees

In its first year with a 10-day run, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair reports drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees.

A stand on one of the major concourses of the 2025 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which was two days longer this year and drew some 400,000 attendees. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Bin Tamim: ‘A Roadmap for the Future’

As we look back across an unusually crowded spring season of international book industry trade shows and fairs, we have news from the 34th annual Abu Dhabi International Book Fair that the fair—which increased its duration to 10 days this year—is reporting a turnout of some 400,000 attendees.

In the course of its run at the Abu Dhabi National Exposition Center (ADNEC), it was announced that the show next year will feature Indonesia as guest of honor. This year’s guest was “Caribbean culture,” and special attention was accorded to “the book of the world” (One Thousand and One Nights).

Student participation increased from the 2024 edition, with a total of 3,562 students onboard and 14,674 students engaging in associated activities across 25 public and private schools. These activities were overseen by 203 educators and supervisors, resulting in participation by some 18,000 from the sector.

The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (see all our stories on it here) is produced under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, a part of the emirate’s department of tourism and culture’s Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre.

Dr. Ali Bin Tamim

Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, who directs the language center, says, “The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is a significant platform for knowledge sharing and creativity.

“This year’s edition charted a roadmap for the future with a scientific approach, and presented a comprehensive cultural vision.

“The 34th edition offered a program focused on dialogue and critical thinking, addressing contemporary global issues such as artificial intelligence, digital transformation, sustainability, environmental protection, and heritage preservation.”

During the fair, the Arabic Language Center released 35 new titles, itself, featuring Wonders’ Eyes in Abu Al-Tayyib’s Mention of Inventions and Marvels by Bin Tamim, himself.

Additionally, the books launched included An Eye That Captures the Moment a critical reading of photographer Kareem Sahib’s work; A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by British historian Julian Jackson; and Between Shadow and Light by Emirati photographer Jassim Rabee.

The fair’s Digitizing Creativity conference—its sessions held on the exhibition floor—was a new program developed in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates’ ministry of economy’s intellectual property sector, the International Publishers Association (IPA); the Arab Publishers Association; the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); the China Media Group; the Emirates Publishers Association; Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina, alongside notable figures from leading academic and cultural institutions.

Online Followers Rose by 78 Percent During the Fair

One of the main concourses at the 2025 edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair can be deceptive in terms of foot traffic for several reasons. For one, the ADNEC setting provides a spacious venue, and the concourses between stands and other points of interest on the exhibition floor are very broad.

For another—and this is seen in other parts of the Arab world, too, as in the Sharjah International Book Fair (November 5 to 16)—the show’s hours can run late at night, usually until around 10 p.m. This allows working parents to bring the kids in the evenings, but it can mean what appears to be a light turnout during the day.

What’s more, the ADNEC facility itself is designed in a large horseshoe format, so that there is a sharp bend, a “corner” in the main exhibition area. Enter just one side of this corner, and you may think you’ve seen the entire fair, missing as much or more content and stands just out of sight “around the bend.”

In more of the interesting numbers from the 2025 fair, two days longer than in the past, the program reports that:

A total 5,790 news and feature articles were published across 51 countries about the Abu Dhabi fair this year;
Publications writing about the fair are based in the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and China;
Content published through the fair’s own digital channels amounted to 1,475 posts across five platforms, marking a 52-percent increase over last year;
That online traffic was largely driven by a 78-percent increase in follower numbers during the event;
Total views rose to 117 million, a 47-percent increase over the 80 million recorded in 2024; and
Total engagement grew by 37 percent from 3.9 million to 5.4 million, while total impressions increased by 48 percent, rising from 214 million to 315 million.

A public-facing fair with a professional program, the ‘Book Signing Corner” (quite a lot bigger than the name suggests) hosted close to 180 author-signing sessions.

More from Publishing Perspectives on digital publishing, one of our most heavily covered topics, is here; more on artificial intelligence (AI) is here; more from years of our specialized coverage on the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is here; more on publishing conferences is here; and more on international book fairs and trade shows in the world publishing industry is here.

The advent of the new Digitizing Creativity conference does not supplant the three-year-old Abu Dhabi International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries—held for the past three years at the opening of the fair and this year not onstage in that time frame. The “Congress PCI,” as it’s called, in its upcoming fourth year has been repositioned to September 14 and 15. As more on that presentation plan is announced, we’ll of course have it for you promptly.

Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and of the International Publishers Association in Geneva.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.