Glossary of tourism terms

Economic territory: The term “economic territory” is a geographical reference and points to the country for which the measurement is done (country of reference) (IRTS 2008, 2.15).
Economically active population: The economically active population or labour force comprises all persons of either sex who furnish the supply of labour for the production of goods and services as defined by the system of national accounts during a specified time-reference period (ILO, Thirteenth ICLS, 6.18).
Economy (of reference): “Economy” (or “economy of reference”) is an economic reference defined in the same way as in the balance of payments and in the system of national accounts: it refers to the economic agents that are resident in the country of reference (IRTS 2008, 2.15).
Employees: Employees are all those workers who hold the type of job defined as “paid employment” (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).
Employer-employee relationship: An employer-employee relationship exists when there is an agreement, which may be formal or informal, between an entity and an individual, normally entered into voluntarily by both parties, whereby the individual works for the entity in return for remuneration in cash or in kind (BPM6, 11.11).
Employers: Employers are those workers who, working on their own account with one or more partners, hold the type of job defined as a “self-employment job” and, in this capacity, on a continuous basis (including the reference period) have engaged one or more persons to work for them in their business as “employee(s)” (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).
Employment: Persons in employment are all persons above a specified age who, during a specified brief period, either one week or one day, were in paid employment or self-employment (OECD GST, p. 170).
Employment in tourism industries: Employment in tourism industries may be measured as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in any of their jobs, as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in their main job, or as a count of the jobs in tourism industries (IRTS 2008, 7.9).
Enterprise: An enterprise is an institutional unit engaged in production of goods and/or services. It may be a corporation, a non-profit institution, or an unincorporated enterprise. Corporate enterprises and non-profit institutions are complete institutional units. An unincorporated enterprise, however, refers to an institutional unit —a household or government unit —only in its capacity as a producer of goods and services (OECD BD4, p. 232)
Establishment: An establishment is an enterprise, or part of an enterprise, that is situated in a single location and in which only a single productive activity is carried out or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added (SNA 2008, 5.14).
Estimation: Estimation is concerned with inference about the numerical value of unknown population values from incomplete data such as a sample. If a single figure is calculated for each unknown parameter the process is called “point estimation”. If an interval is calculated within which the parameter is likely, in some sense, to lie, the process is called “interval estimation”.