Credit: Raihan S.R. Bakhsh via Wikimedia
By Olivia Snaije, Contributing Editor
Four days in to the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, Iranian retaliatory strikes on Gulf countries has left loads of passengers stranded in the Dubai airport, the busiest in the world, potentially snarling travel plans for publishers as a busy spring book fair season gets underway, beginning with next week’s London Book Fair, the first major event on the publishing industry calendar since the war began.Patrizia Di Biase-Dyson, CEO of the Australian Publishers Association said that “given how many Australians travel to Europe via the Gulf,” many of their members are trying to find alternative routes to the London Book Fair, set for March 10-12. The Dubai and the Abu Dhabi airports are major hubs for many flights coming from Australia and Asia.
Angela S.P. Yap, CEO of the publishing consultancy and content development firm, Akasaa, based in Kuala Lumpur, was supposed to have flown to Dubai on Tuesday, traveling to London the following day. At this point, Yap, who has an office in Sharjah, said she’s accepted that she won’t be making it to London. “We’ve gone into Plan B,” she told Publishing Perspectives, “we’re moving to remote like what we did during Covid-19.”
Although Yap doesn’t always attend the London Book Fair, she said this year she wanted to look into securing a booth in 2027. She also planned to travel to Portugal for meetings following London, but will now rearrange her plans to travel around Asia to check on ongoing projects instead. Emirates airlines has promised her a refund on her flight, she noted, but warned that, for many travel insurance policies, “the force majeure clause doesn’t include acts of war.”
For independent academic publisher Subrata Das of Kolkata-based Setu Prakashani, the situation is also tenuous. For his second planned visit to the London Book Fair, which he called “a huge cost for us,” Das is due to leave Kolkata on March 8, traveling via Abu Dhabi. If he could cancel beforehand, he would, Das said, noting that he and his fellow publishers are wondering whether it’s worth the risk to travel, but as of this writing, the airline, Etihad, is offering refunds only on flights booked up to March 7.
London, he added, is important for him, as there is a “good demand” for the company’s books in the U.K. and he had many meetings set with independent publishers who he only sees in London. “It will be very upsetting if we can’t go,” Das said. “Publishers from Asia will be very much affected.”
For Middle Eastern publishers the situation is of course particularly difficult. Lebanese publisher Rana Idriss of Dar Al Adab is currently stuck in Dubai visiting family, but hopes to fly home on Friday. The Beirut airport remains open, despite Israeli bombings and a ground incursion in the south.
For publishers from the region book fairs are essential, given the paucity of bookshops. But with four upcoming book fairs in the region, Idriss said she and her fellow Lebanese publishers have serious questions about whether the fairs would go ahead as planned.
The Muscat International book fair in Oman is scheduled for March 26 to April 5, followed by Erbil International book fair in Iraq, the Abu Dhabi International book fair in April, and the Doha International book fair in Qatar in May.
Moreover, Lebanese publishers fear a repeat of September 2024, when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs where most publishers’ warehouses and printers are located. Idriss said Dar Al Adab’s books were grouped together with several other Lebanese publishers’ books and sent three weeks ago in preparation for the Muscat book fair, and are currently in transit.
Idriss said it would be “a huge loss” if any of these upcoming book fairs are canceled or impacted by the war. “We were counting on these fairs to have enough cash flow to tide us over until the Riyad book fair in the autumn,” she said, adding that the book business is difficult everywhere these days, but particularly in conflict regions.
Idriss hopes that the Casablanca book fair, scheduled for the end of April and early May, will still go ahead, although she concedes it’s too early to tell.
On Tuesday, CEO and Chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), Ahmed Al Ameri, said his delegation was still planning on attending the London Book Fair. And as of today (Wednesday), limited flights had resumed across major UAE airports.
Meanwhile, Yap said her partners were understanding of the situation, and supportive.
“This is an unexpected situation but the test in any industry is, when the shit hits the fan, you discover how good your partners are,” she said. “Will they stand by you? Will they make accommodations? You need to have partners who make the best out of every situation.”