“It went extraordinarily well. It greatly exceeded expectations and the big difference from previous fairs is that during the week there was a huge number of visitors, while during the weekend attendance approached pre-pandemic numbers”, the vice-president of APEL, Pedro Sobral said to Lusa.

The event, which took place between 26 August and 12 September saw the maximum number of visitors possible attending the fair due to the limit of 5,500 people per day.

For APEL, three fundamental factors contributed to these results: the liquidity of consumers, the fact that it was the first large-scale event to which people willingly attended and a greater sensitivity to reading due to the media's attention.

“Last year people would come with a list, buy their books and leave. This year, there was a desire to attend the fair, to stay for lunch or dinner. This was also verified by the large number of attendees during the night”, highlighted Pedro Sobral.

“During the confinement people did not buy books, unlike what happened in other European countries. Now, given the presence of books in the media, the media exposure of the book, there has been an increase in demand, which may make us look optimistically until the end of the year”, he said.