Erfurt (dpa/th) - After the compulsory Corona break, this year's Thuringian Book Days were able to build on the number of visitors from the years before the pandemic. Since Friday, around 3,000 people interested in literature have come to the industry meeting of Thuringian publishers in Erfurt, as the German book trade association announced at the end of the day on Saturday. 30 publishers and 15 authors presented themselves in the Arena Erfurt. Clubs such as the Thuringian Writers' Association and the Erfurter Herbstlese Club also presented themselves. Because of the pandemic, the book days had been canceled for two years in a row.

In the years before the forced Corona break, she regularly attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 guests. After the restart, the organizers are now hoping for Christmas business this year and that as many books as possible from Thuringian publishers will end up on the gift tables, as the state chairman of the stock exchange association, the Jena publisher Helmut Stadeler, said according to the announcement.

According to the Thuringian Ministry of Economics and the stock exchange association, 90 publishers are based in the Free State, of which around 40 are currently active. In 2020, the book market contributed around 40 percent to the total turnover of 936 million euros in the cultural and creative industries.