A SHORTER summer holiday break for schoolchildren in Wales could provide a boost to campsites and caravan sites.

That is according to both a national booking company and a site near Abergavenny.

Reducing the summer holidays from six to three weeks is one of the options being considered by the Welsh government to reshape the school year.

The plans are to keep the same number of holiday weeks but spread them out over the year, meaning less time off in the summer period.

Dan Yates, Founder of outdoor holiday booking company, Pitchup, said: "With the limited time of only three weeks for parents to take their children on holiday in the summer months alone, I anticipate that this shorter summer holiday gap will boost demand for tourism and see campsites booking up much quicker.

“If these Government plans do go under way, we predict campsites and caravan parks will book up imminently in readiness for the summer season."

Rose Jones, secretary of Pont Kemys Caravan and Camping Site, near Abergavenny, said that such a boost would still be dependent on the notoriously unpredictable Welsh weather.

However, she did say that a boost from a shortened summer break was possible.

"We are so weather dependent it is difficult to say whether it would mean more business," she said.

"We have always noticed that our clientele is different during school term times, older possibly retired couples with a definite surge in such folk in September when children go back to school.

"So all things taken into consideration it might possibly boost trade."

Mr Yates said: “The pandemic led to more staycation bookings, which saw people who had never been to a caravan or campsite before now realise what they had been missing.

"This will of course bring a lot of returning customers to the staycation industry as a whole in 2022."

For more information about Pitchup, visit pitchup.com/campsites/Wales