Staggered school holidays to reduce tourist spot congestion?

GEORGE TOWN (Oct 9): The government is considering introducing staggered school holidays according to region, in an effort to reduce overcrowding at tourist spots.

Free Malaysia Today reports that Deputy Tourism and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik said the plan would only affect the March, June and September school breaks, with the year-end holidays left unchanged.

He also said that nothing had been finalised, as the proposal was still under discussion with the education ministry and all stakeholders involved.

“Maybe we can spread it out between north, south and the east regions to allow these regions to have breaks on different weeks.

“I do not foresee many changes, as it would be an administrative matter involving the education department, especially on matters such as exams,” he said.

He  was quoted as saying by the news portal that some states already had staggered weekends, giving as example Kedah, Johor, Kelantan and Terengganu which have a Sunday work week, with Fridays and Saturdays off.

The proposal had also taken into consideration, factors such as hotel occupancy rates. 

He pointed out that such a holiday system was currently in place in the US and UK, helping to effectively distribute tourist load and prevent overcrowding. 

“If you look at Melaka and Cameron Highlands during the peak periods, especially school holidays, it is so crowded and jammed.”

Tourism contributes 14.9% to the country’s GDP, making it a key industry to preserve and protect, along with the tourism workforce of 3.2 million.