Hive of activity as Book Fair bumps in for today's opening

Mountains of books spread throughout the Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday as teams of exhibitors got their stalls ready for the opening today of the Book Fair.

This year's will see greater emphasis on English language books and activities - including the first participation by the British Council.

Dymocks business development manager Matt Steele said the company was glad there would be more promotion of English language books as Chinese language books had always been the focus. 'But we don't expect stronger sales. They will be similar to last year,' he said. 'We usually get busy but the fair is primarily created for Hong Kong people, so it's hard to say about sales.'

Page One senior marketing executive Keith Wong Yiu-wing said the company had increased its stock for the fair by 10 per cent and would focus on promoting movie-related titles and books on finance and economics. 'But we expect the sales will be more or less the same as that for last year,' Mr Wong said.

Each year the company highlighted English language books and it appreciated the organisers' plan to focus more attention on English language books, but it might not result in greater sales immediately, he said.

'However, we have noticed that people are more receptive towards varieties of books. For example, no one wanted to read books about the Middle East but now people do.'