13th June 2025


Feature


Beijing International Book Fair 2025 looks to the kids’ and academic markets


Asia’s biggest trade event has enjoyed double-digit growth in exhibitor numbers, with AI and STM topics high on the agenda at Beijing. Tom Tivnan reports


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he 31st Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) will kick off next week (18th June) in fine fettle, as organisers say that the fair will hit 1,700 exhibitors, a double-digit


percentage increase (13%) on the 2024 edition, while hosting around 20,000 professional visitors. Thirty of those exhibiting companies are UK-based firms, up slightly from the 27 who attended BIBF 2024. All told, there will be 80 countries represented, a rise from 71 in 2024.


The fair also has a significant consumer-facing


offer across the weekend, and more than 300,000 non-trade attendees are expected to visit the sprawling China National Convention Center (CNCC). The numbers for the members of the public have increased significantly since the switch to the centrally located new venue, which is part of the former 2008 Beijing Olympics Park (if you visit Phoenix Publishing and Media Group’s stand this BIBF, it will be essentially at the same spot that Team GB’s Heather Fell was awarded her Modern Pentathlon silver medal). At any rate, all of this is a welcome direction


of travel for an event that continues to regain the audience in its third in-person edition since the Covid pandemic. However, it is worth noting that the 2025 event will still, by some distance, be well off BIBF 2019, which notched up a record 2,600 exhibitors, 56 of whom were headquartered in Britain. Lei Jianhua, BIBF director and vice-president


of the fair’s parent organisation, China National Publications Import and Export Company (CNPIEC), is feeling bullish going into next week. She says: “Last year we saw a huge growth in international attendance and exhibi- tors, and that is set to continue. We are pleased to see new countries represented in Bangladesh,


Beijing International Book Fair Preview Feature


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