Just a few remarks- from personal experience and observations .
Chinese stamps- I have often mentioned that in China, , certain stamp issues are subjected to financial speculations. in other words, they are being regarded as 'alternative investment', just like paintings are in the western world.
This wide scale speculation supports what is the largest physical stamp market in the world- in Beiijing [3 markets], Shangahi [2 markets] and other major towns.
There are some 'real' stamp collectors but they do not drive the market.
As of late, the Chinese govn't clamped on 'excessive speculation' , so
the price bubble burst.
That chinese speculation spread over to Hong Kong and Macau, where Chinese mainland speclators tried to corner the market by buying up certain new issues.
that died down as well.
in Japan, S Korea, Singapore Hong Kong and Taiwan I was encouraged to see much younger generation interested in stamps. that came about because of school- the education system encourage youngsters to take up hobbies and interests, as part of the school carriculum. therefore , over time, some of those youngsters retain their interest in stamp collectors in later years.
However, the emphais is usually on thematic collections. If you look at recent stamp issues from agencies such as Mr Malmood, and this one
http://stamperija.eu/
you can clearly see so many thematic issues meant for far east markets.
At least in the those countries, the young generation is addicted to techology such as the web and social networks. In spite of all of this, thanks to schools , at least there is some interest and encouragement to engage in stamp collecting. that is really the future of the hobby.
In the UK, nothing like that exists. Stamp collectors try their best. I can talk about stamps for hours, but I am no teacher.
philatelic agencies and postal authorites continue to issue an ever incrasing number of stamps in ever decreasing quantities per issue.
In next door [to you] Lebanon, the print issue is normally about 50-100,000 stamps [see their website!] - at least their stamps are postlly used.
In the UK, it seems that the flood of new issues are issued to meet financial targets- selling stamps to collectors is profitable. Not enough of that profit is used to ensure future income stream from future collectors- i.e. young people.
I can see that the same applies in Europe and Israel too.
would there still be stamp collectors in 50 years? who knows?
regards
Yoram