eMarketer’s annual look at worldwide digital travel sales predicts that Asia-Pacific will overtake North America as the world’s biggest market this year.

In dollar terms, eMarketer predicts that digital travel sales in 2017 in APAC will be worth $214 billion, compared with North America’s $200 billion.

The worldwide total for 2017 is tipped to come in at $613 billion, an 11.7% growth on 2016.

APAC’s growth in percentage terms is equally impressive, up 22.5% on 2016. It highlights China and India as the countries leading the region’s charge. It expects Chinese sales for 2017 to climb by 28% to reach $113 billion, while India’s digital travel tills will ring to the tune of $23 billion, up by 33%.

To its credit, eMarketer also highlights some other markets in APAC where there is significant growth to come. Indonesia is of particular interest at the moment after Expedia Inc’s announcement that it was spending $350 million on a minority stake in Traveloka, Indonesia’s biggest online travel agent.

Indonesia, eMarketer says, will grow by 17.7% breaking through the $7 billion barrier. Over the next five years, its growth will slow in percentage terms, at the same time as volumes build, but still remains in the double-digit zone.

In contrast, stats for Europe show that online travel continues to grow in what is a mature market, albeit in the single digit range. For 2017, Europe sales will be worth $142 billion, a 5.7% increase on 2016, with the regions three biggest markets telling different stories.

The UK will outperform the regional average (while underforming the global average) with a 7.5% increase to a total of $35 billion, whereas France and Germany will see growth rates this year of only 4.1% and 4.2%, equating to $20 billion and $25 billion respectively.

North America’s growth will be 5.1% this year.

What the stats tell us is that online travel continues to grow, around the globe. While the percentages are most impressive outside of Europe and North America, it is worth remembering that these mature markets continue to get bigger every year, and from a high base-line.

The research is paid-for, but there are a number of regional press releases which include some top line findings. Click here to read the release for India; click here for Europe; click here for the executive summary.

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