CAIRO — The Cairo International Book Fair, the oldest and largest book fair in the Middle East, celebrates its 50th anniversary under a shadow of controversy and a significant drop in the number of visitors compared to last year.

The lackluster golden anniversary of the fair is largely blamed on the decision of the fair’s organizers — General Egyptian Book Organization (GEBO), which is the executive arm of the Ministry of Culture on publishing and fairs — to move the fair from its usual venue in Nasr City in east Cairo to the new exhibition center in District No. 5 in the eastern Cairo suburbs. The decision, announced three months before the start of the fair, has been protested by many publishers, particularly smaller ones, that complained the public would have difficulty accessing this new venue. Some even spoke about boycotting the fair, but GEBO ignored calls to change back the venue to Nasr City, which is easy to get to.

Despite the high-profile inauguration of the fair’s 50th edition at the Egypt International Exhibition Center by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the number of visitors seemed to prove that publishers had a point. During the first five days of the fair, which takes place Jan. 22-Feb. 5, only 1 million visitors turned up, according to a press statement Jan. 28 by Haitham al-Hajj, the head of GEBO, marking a fall from the 1.8 million during the same period in 2018.

The shiny new venue also imposed a number of regulations that made participation both more expensive and more laborious for the participants, such as restricting the entry of books to the building to five hours a day. In addition, the rental fees of pavilions in the new exhibition hall have gone up significantly from previous years, as much as double the cost of last year.