Transportation, Trade, and Tourism: Key Definitions
Key Definitions: Transportation, Trade, and Tourism
Accessibility: The degree of ease of access to a particular place, related to the quality and quantity of transport means at its disposal.
Freeway: A large capacity road equipped with separate lanes for both directions and no grade crossings. Freeways typically involve two lanes in both directions and are designed with geometric features, such as sweeping curves, that allow for the movement of a large number of vehicles at high speed with a high level of safety for users.
Motorway Tolls: A road for which it is necessary to pay a fee for driving on it.
Highway: A means of great capacity, like a freeway, but lacking some of its features, such as the absence of level crossings.
Connectivity: The degree of connection of a point with the transmission.
Freight: The price and conditions laid down for certain goods by sea.
Infrastructure Plan: A set of laws that seek to develop support services deemed essential for modern economic development.
Transport Network: A set of paths that form a communications system.
Tertiary Sector: The sector of economic activity that includes transport, communications, commerce, entertainment, and other services in general.
Economic Outsourcing: The process by which the tertiary sector of the economy (transport, communications, tourism, trade, etc.) is gaining weight in relation to other sectors to become the primary sector.
Trade: The activity that offers the surplus of products and services to consumers. It can be done within the borders of the country itself (internal trade) or outside them (foreign trade).
Foreign Trade: The exchange of goods and services from one country to the rest of the world. It includes the export sale of domestic products abroad and the import of foreign goods by a country.
Tourist Season: The concentration of tourism demand in certain months of the year. In Spain, given the dominant model of tourism of sun and beach, the demand is focused in the middle months of summer.
Tourism Infrastructure: A set of facilities and spaces for leisure service to hotels, hostels, apartments, campsites, gas stations resorts, marinas, hunting areas, airports, etc.
Tour Operators: Wholesalers are companies that integrate all stages of the tourism business, hiring hotels, transport, and control prices, tastes, and choices of customers.
Tourism: An activity that implies a time shift of residence and purpose of leisure (cultural, recreational, etc.).
Cultural Tourism: Tourism that provides visitors with visits to museums and monuments, as well as tours of the historic centers of cities and landmarks.
Rural Tourism: Activities in rural areas seeking to encourage complementary activities to farming, crafts, and traditions. They usually include private accommodation and a range of leisure activities related to nature (hiking, cycling, horseback riding, rafting, etc.)
Trade Balance: The difference between exports and imports. Spain has traditionally been in deficit, although this deficit is offset in the balance of payments with the sale of services (especially tourism) and investment of foreign capital in Spain.
Balance of Payments: A document that records a country’s economic transactions with the rest of the world during a period of time (usually one year), noting the revenue and expenditure for each operation and the difference that arises as a positive or negative balance.