Spain to be Guest of Honour at the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair

The Frankfurt Fair is considered the most important in the world, as shown by the fact that in 2016 it was visited by nearly 280,000 people from 125 countries, of whom 172,296 were professionals in the sector. In addition, an estimated 10,000 journalists from 75 countries attended the 4,150 programmed activities at the fair, and some 2,400 bloggers were also present.

Taking advantage of this major impact, Spain will aim to project a comprehensive vision of the cultural reality of our country in all its facets, through an extensive programme of activities that may have their focus in the city of Frankfurt, but will extend to the other cities of Germany.

The thread running through the Spanish presence aims to show the diversity and innovation in the cultural and creative sector as a whole, not only in the book sector but also in others such as video games, gastronomy, theatre, the visual arts, the cultural heritage, cinema, TV, radio, music, etc.

This initiative is part of the Promotional Plan for Reading that the State Secretary for Culture approved on 3 May with the slogan "Leer te da vidas extra" (Reading Gives You Extra Lives), as well as within the Culture 2020 Plan, one of whose general objectives is to "extend Spanish culture beyond our borders."

The signing ceremony was attended by the State Secretary for Culture, Fernando Benzo, the President of the Federation of Spanish Editors, Daniel Fernández, and representatives from the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Books are the biggest cultural industry

The announcement of Spain as guest for 2021 is a reminder that 30 years ago in 1991 it was also Guest Country of Honour at the fair. Since then the Spanish book industry has experienced an unprecedented transformation, and is one of the biggest producer countries in the world, with an average annual output of 80,000 new titles.

The publishing industry represents one of the major economic drivers in Spanish culture. According to the 2016 Annual of Cultural Statistics, published by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, the sector of Books and the Press contributed 0.9% of total GDP in 2014 and 34.1% of the GDP from all cultural activities. These figures make the publishing sector the biggest cultural industry in Spain.

In addition, the book sector is an important source of jobs. In 2015, the cultural sector in Spain overall provided 515,000 jobs, of which 49,000 (9.6%) were in book, magazine and other publishing activities. Jobs linked to the other activities associated with the book chain should also be added to this figure.

Spain is one of the main European book markets

According to the latest figures from the International Publishers Association, Spain is one of the main European book markets, in fourth place behind Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

The vitality of the Spanish language (shared by over 500 million speakers) has multiplied the possibilities of international projection of an industry that has 173 subsidiaries in 29 countries, many of them over sixty years old, and that enjoys a special prestige among its foreign counterparts.

Non official translation