January and February can be difficult months to get through in the UK, with winter lingering and spring still a little way off.

Travel agents were predicting that 11 January would be the busiest day of the year for holiday bookings so far and it turns out they were right.

Thomson and First Choice reported record bookings for sunshine getaways, and this is the time of year when timeshare owners start planning ahead to use their points to discover new favourites – or perhaps take advantage of last minute offers by leading specialists like Swiss company Hapimag who have a tempting portfolio of resorts in winter sun destinations including the Canary Islands, Spain and Marrakech www.hapimag.com.

This year will see more people booking via mobile or tablet than any other year previously, and topping the most popular short-haul destinations will be Greece, the Canaries, the Balearics and Croatia, whilst for those looking for some faraway sun, Jamaica, Mauritius and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico are set to top the list. Morocco is seeing a rise in visitors, too, and with February temperatures in Marrakech hovering around 24C and very little rain Morocco looks set for another strong year in 2014.