Tertiary Sector and Service Economy: Health, Tourism, Technology
The tertiary sector
The tertiary sector is the economic sector that includes activities that do not produce material goods as in the primary and secondary sectors, but instead serve the population. The scheme of tertiary activities is classified below.
Classification of tertiary activities
- Social or supplementary services: services provided to people to cover their most basic needs, such as healthcare, education and justice.
- Trade and distribution: services that serve information, transport and the exchange of goods and people.
- Consumer service companies: enterprises that provide personal services directly to consumers.
- Other services: services provided to people that are not all considered basic, such as transport, research, communications, advertising, business services, leisure, management, tourism and small trade.
The set of activities related to technology and science is often called tertiary or quaternary. The so-called routine or banal kinds of work are those that require little preparation.
Changes affecting the tertiary sector
- Increased life expectancy, which makes care services for older people essential.
- Greater incorporation of women into working life.
- Reduction of working hours and the development of paid holidays.
- Hope for improved quality of life: better food, hygiene and living conditions.
- Improvements in health through the discovery of effective remedies (such as vaccines).
Health and wealth: Poor and rich countries
Poor countries: many lack basic health care systems and do not have sufficient money to provide them.
Rich countries: these countries have advanced scientific and technological capacity, but they experience rising rates of so-called lifestyle diseases (for example, smoking and poor diet).
WHO
WHO (World Health Organization) works with the aim of improving the health of all peoples. WHO has helped eradicate diseases such as smallpox and has made major progress against polio.
Tourism and its effects
Tourism generates the creation and expansion of businesses and services (airlines, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, etc.).
Positive effects of tourism
- Tourism can generate high income for a country.
- It creates many jobs and makes other economic sectors more dynamic.
- It allows contact with other cultures and promotes learning of new languages.
Negative effects of tourism
- Price increases and speculation on land, which can enrich companies while disadvantaging locals.
- Tourism-related employment is often seasonal and vulnerable to wars, crises and other disruptions.
- Tourism can cause serious environmental impacts.