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occupancy rate
A tourism business occupancy rate refers to the
number of airline seats or the units of hotel
room space sold. This demand is usually
measured as a percentage of available seats or
space occupied for a given period of time. It is
calculated by dividing the number of occupied
rooms/seats by the total number available for sale
during the same period.
occupational safety
DAVID G.T. SHORT, NEW ZEALAND
Occupational safety is one of the most controversial
pieces of federal legislation. The purpose of this
act has been to centralise regulation of labour and
workplace for employees in the United States. The
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
created three new government agencies, the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
the Occupational Safety and Health Review
Commission and the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health. The first one has the
responsibility for formulating and enforcing regulations
for on-the-job safety. Almost all US
tourism businesses and their operations are influenced
or even regulated by various occupational
safety standards framed by this and other institutions.
ROBERT H. WOODS, USA
off-road vehicle
O
Off-road vehicle is a term used for both automobile-like
vehicles, such as jeeps, and for recreational
vehicles such as mountain bikes, dune
buggies and snowmobiles. The latter group are
also known as all-terrain vehicles. They rose in
popularity during the 1980s, but unsafe design led
to a decline in demand for three-wheelers. Offroad
vehicles increase accessibility to various
attractions and landscapes, but their usage has
sometimes had adverse environmental impacts
often resulting in conflict over resource use.
CHARLES S. JOHNSTON, NEW ZEALAND
operating cost
The costs relating to production can be broken
down in a variety of ways. For fixed tourism costs,
for example, factors of production are the same
whether one or more units of the product �such as
a hotel room) are sold. Variable costs have a
tendency to decrease initially, as economies of
large-scale production are enjoyed and then, at
some level of output, increase as diseconomies of
large-scale production are encountered. The
notion of operating costs relates to those costs that
need to be covered in order to break even.
See also: accounting
JOHN FLETCHER, UK