It was a shame that while activities that were organised free of charge, such as those by the national symphonic orchestra, were well attended, events where a fee was charged were not, Culture Minister Mario de Marco said this afternoon.
Dr de Marco was speaking during the presentation of a population survey providing an overview of the main characteristics associated with cultural participation in Malta.
The survey, published by the National Statistics Office and Creativity Works, was the second of its kind following Kultura 2000, published 11 years ago.
The survey was conducted in April last year among 1,441 people aged 16 and over. Questions were about television, books, internet, language preferences and cultural events attendance.
One of the questions respondents were asked was why they did not attend local cultural events. 52 per cent said they were not interested, 30 per cent said their lifestyle or circumstance prohibited them from doing so, six per cent said they did not like crowds and one per cent said they were too expensive.
77 per cent said they watched television for at least half an hour a day. Only three per cent said they did not watch TV.
Drama remained the preferred type of television programme (25 per cent) followed by documentaries (16 per cent) and current affairs (15 per cent).
While Maltese is the preferred language for speaking (91 per cent) and watching television (35 per cent), English is the preferred language for writing (45 per cent).
A total 49 per cent of those who were employed and 22 per cent of those who were unemployed said they listened to radio for at least half an hour a day.
Respondents who did not attend theatre or live music performance accounted for 69.5 and 68.7 per cent, respectively. 62 per cent never went to the cinema or to a projected artistic performance.
75.2 per cent did not visit an art or photographic exhibition, gallery or craft display.
Dr de Marco said the survey will help in the designing of a strategic plan, it will help policy makers and it can also help in the planning of 2018 when Valletta will be a European cultural capital.
However, one also had to look beyond and the national work to increase interest in cultural activities should be long term.