Step aside, BRIC, because there’s a new growing economies acronym in town in the form of SLIMMA. And it could well be the ticket for international web marketing...

Top travel bosses have predicted the SLIMMA countries to be the industry’s top growth areas. And to put you out of your misery, it stands for: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Argentina.

Following closely in the footsteps of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China and India) emerging markets, these SLIMMA countries are tipped to be the most important areas that tourism businesses can focus on in the coming months.

And there’s no better way to target emerging markets than by marketing on the foreign language internet. With foreign language use online growing at phenomenal rates, more and more people in emerging markets are heading to the internet for their retail fix.

Taking just the BRIC markets into account, Portuguese (spoken in Brazil), Russian and Chinese are all in the top ten growing languages online in the ten years. Portuguese use online grew by 990%, Russian by a huge 1,825% and Chinese by 1,478%. 

If these are anything to go by, we can surely expect a similar story from the so-called SLIMMA countries too. 

These days, in such a global world, there’s simply no excuse for talking to people in the wrong language. It’s easier than ever to reach a global market, and consumers are catching on to this fact. The Common Sense Advisory Panel found that 85% of people who shop online are more likely to make a purchase in their own language. And as international web marketing in foreign languages generally proves a higher return on investment than its English-language counterpart, what are you waiting for?

So whether you’re in the travel and tourism industry or not, SLIMMA could well be the most important acronym of your business life...

HTH!

tags: emerging markets, Foreign Language Internet, international web marketing, translating websites