Spain’s teenagers will be given a €400 (£334/$440) voucher to be used as an incentive to help rebuild the country’s cultural sector.
Those that turn 18 in 2022 will be given a Youth Cultural Voucher, with a maximum €200 of the bonus to be spent on live events such as festivals and music concerts, and up to €100 spent on physical cultural products or those for digital consumption like audiobooks and podcasts.
During the pandemic, Spain’s cultural sector witnessed a year-on-year decrease of 15.8% on spending from citizens, especially theatre and cinema.
Similar initiatives in France and Italy are already in place, with Spain’s Ministry of Culture and Sport opting to approve the scheme.
A Government document said: “The Youth Cultural Bonus project seeks to facilitate universal and diversified access to culture for young people, generate new cultural consumption habits and strengthen existing ones, create new audiences, stimulate demand and reduce the negative impact caused by the pandemic on the various cultural sectors in our country.
“In short, promote loyalty generated by the habit of consuming cultural products in young people so that, as adults, they continue to consume cultural products regularly.”
The document also said that roughly 500,000 young people will benefit from the scheme in Spain.
“It is also worth noting the intention that public spending derived from this aid will not be concentrated in a single cultural sector, but that it will be distributed and diversified among different sectors, including traditional and other emerging cultural products and activities, and prioritising those especially damaged by the consequences of the pandemic,” added the document.
Image: Eliott Reyna on Unsplash
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