WA school principals are lukewarm about a radical tourism pitch for WA public schools to stagger their holiday breaks depending on their location north or south of the Swan River.

The Tourism Council of WA proposal in a recent discussion paper said families would a better chance to travel and book accommodation during peak periods at lower prices but Principals Federation of WA president Bevan Ripp told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings the benefits were mostly limited to the tourism sector.

“It’s very Perth-centric, they’re talking about metropolitan schools being on different rosters, what about the regions, where do they fit in?” he said.

The plan to allow one region to start their autumn, winter and spring school holidays a week earlier than the other was detailed in the council’s “School’s Out” report released on Friday ahead of the autumn break and adopted in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Staggering holidays would halve road congestion, reduce accommodation prices and visitors at tourist attractions, and generate an extra 730,000 visitor nights, 2000 jobs and $299m in visitor expenditure from WA families, the report says.

Scotch College principal and WA head of the Australian Independent Schools Dr Alec O’Connell said WA was much larger than other states and tourism benefits of staggering holidays were harder to achieve here.

“It would just throw another complexity into the mix … and we’ve got far more important things for schools to focus on,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear more on the proposal.