Frankfurt Book Fair opens with this year's guest of honour Italy

The Frankfurt Book Fair is to be formally opened on Tuesday with Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli in attendance representing Italy as the guest of honour.

Giuli will be accompanied by his German counterpart, Claudia Roth, for the opening ceremony at 5 pm (1500 GMT).

Earlier in the day, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association will report on the sector's economic outlook, and the organizers of the world's largest book fair will provide an overview of the 76th edition of the event.

More than 1,000 authors and speakers at 650 events on 15 stages await this year's visitor.

The event opens to the book trade on Wednesday and to the wider public on Friday.

Advance sales figures are reported to be considerably above last year's. In 2023, around 215,000 people visited the book fair at which more than 4,000 exhibitors from 95 countries presented new publications.

This year's event will end on Sunday with the award of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to US historian and journalist Anne Applebaum.