Bogota book fair draws over 430,000 visitors

Bogota, May 3 (IANS/EFE) The Bogota International Book Fair, whose guest of honour was Portugal this year, drew 18,000 more visitors than the 2012 edition, with total visitors hitting 433,000, organizers said.

The 14-day fair, which closed its doors Wednesday, saw attendance rise 4.3 percent from the 415,000 visitors registered last year.

Figures are not yet available on deal volume at the fair, but it is estimated that transactions exceeded the $20.4 million in business done last year.

Peru will be the guest of honour at the 2014 Bogota International Book Fair and is expected to bring a large delegation to Colombia led by 2010 Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.

Vargas Llosa has confirmed that he will attend next year's edition of the Bogota International Book Fair, the third-largest book fair in Latin America, said Peruvian Embassy spokesmen.

Peru was the guest of honour at the fair in 2003.

The 2013 Bogota International Book Fair featured 23 Portuguese writers and French Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio.

Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale; Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom, a Nobel candidate on several occasions; Spanish writers Fernando Savater, Juan Jose Millas and J.J. Benitez; German writer and journalist Gunter Wallraff; and American writer John Katzenbach were among the writers who attended the fair.

--IANS/EFE

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