Digital travel sales in Western Europe are set to reach 141 billion US dollars before the end of the year. This would represent an increase of 5.7% over 2016, with the figure having been forecasted by eMarketer. This compares favourably to a growth rate of 5.1% in the North American market. However, both markets fall below the 11.7% increase expected globally. The predicted Western European growth rate falls below growth levels in 2016, which reached 7.1% over 2015. Jaimie Chung, a forecasting analyst at eMarketer, said that “Airbnb is growing quickly in Western Europe, albeit from a small base, in large part because of travellers' increasing independence and desire to live like locals”.
