请教一个现在分词作定语的问题

vipraymond

新年好，关于这道题，我想问：“Despite the growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online”  和  “Despite the [size=14.6667px]growing number of people purchasing plane tickets online”
这两个短语意思上是否相同？选的时候我倾向于前者，但又说不出后者哪里不好，只是觉得这个地方没必要用V+ing修饰。

(GWD-10-Q21)

Despite the growing number of people whopurchase plane tickets online, airline executives are convinced that, just as one-thirdof bank customers still prefer human tellers to automatic teller machines, manytravelers will still use travel agents.

A.     growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online, airlineexecutives are convinced that, just as one-third of bank customers still preferhuman tellers to automatic teller machines, many travelers will

B.     growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online, airlineexecutives are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still preferhuman tellers to automatic teller machines, that many travelers would

C.     growing number of people purchasing plane tickets online, airlineexecutives are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still preferhuman tellers as compared to automatic teller machines, many travelers will

D.     fact that the number of people purchasing planetickets online is growing, airline executives are convinced, just as one-thirdof bank customers still prefer human tellers as compared to automatic tellermachines, that many travelers would         (A)

E.     fact that the number of people who purchase plane tickets online aregrowing, airline executives are convinced that, just as one-third of bankcustomers still prefer human tellers compared with automatic teller machines,many travelers would