Abstract |
Future participation in outdoor recreation is of interest to authorities as well as tourism and outdoor recreation organizations, but at the same time difficult to give an accurate answer for. It is not possible to study the future as such, since there is no empirical data to be analyzed which measures the time ahead of us. But the future is nevertheless a very important field of research because predicting the future is inherent important to make the right management decisions, improve adaptation, inform policy makers and ultimately support a more sustainable development. Alm et al. (2012:7) argue that “...we can use our knowledge about history and about the current situation for a discussion that also involves our values. The basic idea is that we can better shape our future in the way we want if we do this on an educated basis”. Elements in building this educated basis with regard to social science is for example information about changes over time for activities and attitudes, as well as presumptions concerning the future expressed by different groups. Hence, among the techniques that can be used to get a better basis for speculations about the future are predictions by experts and surveys among potential participants. |