A special tool for increasing the cultural consumption of citizens was the programme of cultural vouchers organised by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic in 2006. The cultural vouchers (each with the value of SKK 200, approximately euro 6) were distributed free to students and teachers of elementary and secondary schools. The vouchers could be used for visiting a cultural event or for access to cultural heritage (museums, galleries, libraries) in the organisations that were registered as recipients of the vouchers. Among the recipients of the vouchers, were some cultural organisations administered by the central government, by regional or local public authorities, as well as some non-government cultural institutions. The Ministry issued a total of 900 thousand vouchers for students and 100 thousand vouchers for teachers. The Ministry then reimbursed individual cultural organisations the amount of money for all vouchers that any given organisation received.
A total of 836 650 students and 66 363 teachers, which represent 903 013 eligible individuals that received the vouchers, participated in the project. A total of 453 cultural organisations applied for registration to this project. Altogether, 527 194 vouchers were applied, with a total value of SKK 105.5 million (euro 3.1 million).
The Ministry of Culture has been evaluating the whole project during 2007. The important aspect is the real effectiveness of the project in terms of increased access to cultural values, and the analysis of the applied vouchers in terms of the recipients and / or in terms of the type of individual cultural events (according to unofficial statistics, the highest percentage of the vouchers was spent on visiting the cinema). Based on the project evaluation, the Ministry will decide on the possible continuance of the project for the next period.
A number of cultural institutions on the national or regional level have their own programmes of communication with their audiences, as well as their own projects for increasing attendance. Among the most frequently used tools are reduced entry prices for frequent visitors of cultural events or for other target groups (students, pensioners, disabled people), advantageous group tickets, special seasonal offers or clubs of friends of individual cultural institutions.
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