2025 Bangkok book fair draws 1.3 million visitors despite earthquake

Bangkok Book Fair 2025 drew 1.3M visitors despite a one-day closure due to an earthquake, setting records and boosting regional publishing ties.

The 2025 Bangkok Book Fair achieved its target of 1.3 million visitors, despite the event being closed for one day following the earthquake in Myanmar on 28 March, the organiser has announced.

Suwich Rungwattanapiboon, President of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT), said the 53rd National Book Fair and 23rd Bangkok International Book Fair, held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, was a success and met its visitor target.

The event took place from 27 March to 8 April.
Suwich noted that although the event was suspended on 28 March, 130,000 visitors returned the following day, 29 March.

He added that on weekdays, the fair attracted approximately 70,000 to 80,000 visitors per day, while on weekends the number rose to between 130,000 and 150,000 per day. A record-breaking 170,000 visitors attended on 6 April.

Generation Z made up the largest share of attendees, accounting for 43.65% of the total, followed by Generation Y (36.1%) and Generation X (19.75%).

The majority of visitors were women (66%), followed by men (27%), LGBTQ+ individuals (6%), while 1% did not specify their gender.

Suwich said that 30.88% of book buyers at the fair spent between 600 and 1,000 baht, while 14.7% spent between 1,000 and 1,500 baht, and 12.84% spent more than 3,000 baht.

He also reported that during the fair, there were 271 rights-matching meetings for book acquisitions, involving 135 companies from 14 countries, including South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Myanmar, and the Philippines.



Of these, 43 were foreign firms and 92 were Thai firms. There were 63 buyers and 107 sellers of book rights, with copyright deals valued at 68 million baht.

PUBAT also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency to participate in a fellowship programme between Thai and Taiwanese publishers at future book fairs.

(2025/04/09-00:00)