The annual Book Fair wrapped up yesterday with a record tally of about 950,000 visitors who spent HK$500 million in the past seven days.
A survey showed that people were more willing to spend this year but exhibitors said that had little impact on their profits because of increased manpower costs and rent.
Visitors spent on average HK$522 at the fair, a 10 per cent increase over last year, according to the Trade Development Council, the event organiser. This is about a quarter of what most people spend on books in a year.
But Patrick Sinn Kwok-chung, honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Publishing Federation, said the fair was not a money-maker for exhibitors.
'This year's overall situation was satisfactory, but many exhibitors' profit was somewhat offset by an increase in costs.'
The discount for exhibition booths was less than last year and salespeople who last year were paid HK$22 an hour earned the newly launched minimum wage of HK$28.
Chain bookseller Joint Publishing expected to just break even despite a 10 per cent rise in sales. 'We hired almost the same number of staff because of the large booth we had. We also faced an increase in production costs and inflation,' said Elf Law Ching-yee, manager of the store's retail department.