From children to seniors: is culture accessible to everyone?

Purpose The main objective of the study is to analyse the perception of accessibility to cultural for different age groups (children, teenagers, adults and seniors) in the city of Novi Sad (Serbia). Additional goals were to reveal which cultural contents in the city are the most important to which particular age group and to measure the level of compatibility with their needs. Design/methodology/approach The study sample consisted of 170 respondents of different age groups used for comparison purposes. Data were collected through an online questionnaire and analysed by IBM SPSS Statistics (descriptive statistical analysis and ANOVA test). Findings The results of this research showed that a gap is evident between the current cultural offer and the needs and preferences of visitors of different age groups. One of the significant obstacles that emerged is the inadequate promotion of cultural contents in the city to different age groups of visitors (children, teenagers, adults and seniors). The study also identified the age groups of visitors to whom the cultural offer was least adapted, as well as mapping the cultural institutions which are least accessible to audiences of different ages. Originality/value The paper addresses the knowledge gap related to accessibility to cultural for different generations. It focuses on topics that have not been previously researched – comparison of the needs of different generations concerning the actual offer in cultural institutions, addressing the importance of certain elements of a cultural offer to different age groups and the level of accessibility of such features to different age groups.