UAE: Rent exemption announced for all participants in Abu Dhabi book fairs this year

Publishers and exhibitors who are planning to take part in any Abu Dhabi book fair this year won't have to pay any rental and participation fees, it was announced on Tuesday.

The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), leads the initiative as part of efforts to support the local and international publishing industry.

This will be the third consecutive year that all publishing houses, exhibitors, and publishers — taking part in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2023, Al Ain Book Festival 2023, and Al Dhafra Book Festival 2023 — had been exempted from fees.

With this decision, ALC and DCT-Abu Dhabi hope to offer a strong incentive to attract more publishers and creators to participate in these exhibitions, which serve to enrich the local and regional cultural scene, supply Arab libraries with a wide collection of international publications, and position the emirate as a global cultural capital, a thriving centre for commerce, and a hub for cross-cultural dialogue.

Dr Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the ALC, said: "The fees exemption ... is a catalyst for growth and advancement in the publishing and creative industries locally, regionally, and globally. This feeds into wider goals of the ALC, namely to reach greater numbers of readers and to promote and elevate Arabic language content across all forms of publishing."

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