For tourism, after BRICs, Lanka-included SLIMMA is the best

The World Travel Market 2011 Industry Report released on Monday has included Sri Lanka among a group of countries which are second best for tourism in terms of attraction and growth whilst BRICs have been rated the best.

The grouping carries the acronym SLIMMA with WTM experts choosing SL of Sri Lanka for it. Others nations are Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Argentina. These five countries, the influential WTM Report said, are the five next emerging markets which the travel and tourism industry should focus its attention hot on the heels of BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa for tourism.

In selecting Sri Lanka the WTM report listed three key reasons: ‘Re-emerging after the civil war’; ‘Investing in infrastructure’ and ‘Beauty of destination’.

For Indonesia the key attractions were ‘Diversity of country,’ ‘Growing population’ and ‘High disposable income’. Malaysia’s key drivers included ‘Asian country but with more freedom than others,’ ‘Developing tourism industry’ and ‘aggressive marketing’. For the North American Mexico key facets were ‘Improved infrastructure,’ ‘Low taxes’ and ‘High disposable income’. Argentina is identified as ‘Up and coming destination’ with ‘Positive economic growth’ and ‘Cost effective holiday destination’.

The WTM report highlights China as the most important of the BRICS markets from an inbound tourism perspective.