ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s there has been a burgeoning literature on leisure forecasting. Forecasting is different from the theoretical discussion and speculation considered in previous chapters. The main difference is that it tends to be quantitative: it aims to produce precise predictions of how many people will be engaging in what activities at some point in the future. In the 1960s, when researchers, planners and policy-makers involved with leisure began to turn their attention to questions of forecasting, the environment in which they were working was entirely different from the situation in the 1980s. In the 1960s the full effects of postwar economic growth and increased prosperity were being felt. Real incomes were rising rapidly, even in Britain and the USA, which experienced lower growth rates than other economically advanced and advancing nations. In particular two important changes were taking place which, it was realized, would affect leisure. These two changes were the growth in population and the growth in car-ownership.
