Surprising events among the fastest growing magnets for tourism

The inaugural Sorrento Writers’ Festival, the brainchild of former journalist and bookseller Corrie Perkin, was held on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria last month. It was a huge success by all accounts, with more than 100 authors and hundreds of book lovers gathered in the posh coastal village to participate in a program of 90 events.

It’s one of more than 112 literary festivals scheduled for Australia in 2023. That’s impressive, when you consider that there are “only” about 106 book fairs and festivals in the US annually.

Combine these with the 300 literary events in the UK and a slew of festivals popping up internationally, from Jaipur to Buenos Aires and Ubud, and it’s easy to see why literary festivals, despite a hiccup during the pandemic years, are among the fastest growing magnets for tourism around the world.

Visitors at Jaipur Literary Festival at the city’s Diggi Palace,Credit: Getty Images

April, May and June are especially busy times in Australia with Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane, Margaret River, Bendigo, Queenscliff and the Northern Territory all hosting writers’ festivals, followed by Byron Bay in August, Port Fairy in September, and festivals in Cairns and Perth and regional towns Scone, Clunes, Tenterfield and Dalby among many dotted throughout the year.

The mother of them all still is Adelaide Writers’ Week, a bucolic talkfest held every March in the Pioneer Women’s Gardens, which was first held in 1960 as part of the biennial Adelaide Festival and is Australia’s largest free writers’ festival.

The big city events have seriously star-studded guest lists, often with the help of cultural institutions such as British Council and the Australian Council of the Arts. The Carriageworks-based Sydney Writers’ Festival entices close to 100,000 people and 400 writers from around the world. Melbourne, a UNESCO City of Literature, welcomes about 50,000 readers and a similar number of writers. That’s a lot of reading and talking.

Often the smaller, regional destinations snag great guests too, especially if the location is appealing. What desk-bound author, typing away in their cold little room all year, wouldn’t covet the opportunity to travel to Byron or Ubud in mid-winter?

Timing your travels to coincide with a literary festival has several advantages. Cities and towns hosting festivals are very buzzy during these periods. Often there are concerts, parties and exhibitions planned to coincide with the official program.

People are more gregarious, open to ideas and lively discussions, and this spills into the bars and cafes.

Accommodation might be tight in smaller towns, but usually the events coincide with lower tourist seasons (Edinburgh being one exception).

Some festivals, such as the popular Hay Festival held in the beautiful Welsh countryside at Hay-on-Wye in May-June, offer B&Bs, rooms in local cottages and even a camping site in the charmingly-named Tangerine Fields.

Then there’s the opportunity to hob-nob with the likes of Ian Rankin, Helen Garner, Kazuro Ishiguro and other local and international celebrities. Guest writers are in relaxed moods because of the festival atmosphere and are usually quite accessible, through book signing and question and answer sessions and even for the occasional drink in a pub.

They’re also there to sell books. Nothing makes an author happier than a hundred people lined up after a reading, brandishing copies for them to sign.

One other aspect to factor in – festivals are often free or have free sessions. Sometimes you don’t need to book anything ahead, just turn up at the festival hub. Even if you can’t get into a session, there is plenty of people-watching, good food and coffee, and the sense you’ve really tapped into a place.

Don’t read much? Well, writers’ festivals aren’t just for literature buffs. Most have a strong public affairs component, covering topical political and social issues. Each festival has its own controversies, scandals and clashes of egos which make them memorable. You rarely come away uninspired.

As with cruising, there’s probably a festival for you. Melbourne has both a Jewish and a Chinese writers’ festival. There’s an Agatha Christie festival in Torquay UK each September and a Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans in March. Bloody Scotland celebrates Scottish crime writing. Etonnant Voyageurs (“amazing travellers”) held in St Malo in France is a festival of travel writing that might just be the ticket.

If travel is supposed to broaden the mind, this is a great way to do it.

The Global Association of Literary Festivals (gaolf.org) is a good place to start if you’re interested in finding a literary festival that fits in with your travel plans.