Economic Sectors and Services
- Tertiary Sector: A set of activities whose purpose is to provide services to society, such as transportation, commerce, and health care.
- Third-Economic Sector: The process by which the tertiary sector of the economy (transport, communications, commerce, tourism, etc.) gains weight relative to the primary and secondary sectors. It becomes the leading sector in terms of workforce employment and contribution to GDP.
- Production Services: Activities that support tertiary industrial production, both pre- and post-production, including research, design, management, and marketing.
Transport and Infrastructure
- Transport System: All resources and infrastructures that allow for the displacement of people and goods between geographic locations.
- Trans-European Transport Network: The set of transport and communication networks between EU countries. The community transport policy encourages these networks to increase interconnection, reduce displacement costs and time, and promote the smooth functioning of the single market.
Tourism Dynamics
- Tour Operator: A wholesale company that integrates all phases of the tourist business, including contracting accommodation and transport. They gain control over prices, tastes, and customer decisions. Consequently, a significant proportion of total tourist expenditure remains outside the host country.
- Tourist Season: The concentration of tourist demand in certain months, especially during summer holidays, driven by the sun-and-beach model. This creates problems such as infrastructure saturation, loss of quality, environmental degradation, and poor utilization of capital during the rest of the year.
Trade and Economic Balances
- Trade Balance: The difference between the value of exports and imports.
- Balance of Payments: A document that records economic transactions between a country and the rest of the world over a period of time, tracking income and expenditure to determine a positive or negative balance.
- Wholesale: Commercial establishments that concentrate production and distribute goods to retail trade.
- Retail: Commercial establishments that sell directly to the consumer, including traditional trade and large stores.
- Export: The sale of domestic products abroad.
- Import: The purchase of foreign products by a country.
- Single Market: The free movement of goods, persons, capital, and services between EU member countries, effective since 1993.
