Traditionally, summer holiday bookings begin in earnest just after Christmas. Tour operators, airlines and destinations watch closely to see how many of us go into travel agents or look at online travel sites. And if there is bad weather around then the number of enquirers and bookings rise.
So there are a number of optimistic people around at the moment. The post Christmas sales seem to be going well and some retailers claim this is the best sales period since 1998. Some say sales are up over 18% over last year. The weather is cold and more snow is forecast over large swathes of the country.
So according to all the runes, this should be a good year for the travel industry.