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| Rosamund de la Hey | |
"As we end the summer holidays, and for some booksellers the tourist season, I'd like us to think about the concept of Bookshop Tourism.... Book lovers don't need to come to bookshops to buy books. We have great customer service, but so do our online competitors--albeit within a fairly dry definition. And yes, there are people who consciously want to support the high street. But most of our customers come into our bookshops and buy our books for one reason only; they enjoy the experience. We are, I would say, already a leisure destination."
--Rosamund de la Hey, president of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. and Ireland, in her speech Monday at the opening of the BA Conference in Birmingham (via the Bookseller)