A dispute has broken out on Lake Constance over the tourist tax: In Kressbronn, the municipality now wants to collect 198 euros per year from every berth holder - last year it was still 20 euros per year and person on board. The money is intended to help finance the tourist facilities that can be used with the "Echt Bodensee Card".
In addition to a fishing club, Meichle + Mohr Marina Ultramarin in Kressbronn, which offers space for around 1,400 boats, also filed a lawsuit against this. In 2021, it had already won before the Administrative Court (VGH) in Mannheim: Lake Constance and therefore the moorings were not part of the municipal area, the judges ruled. However, the Kressbronn municipal council issued new bylaws that came into force at the beginning of the year. This has now landed before the VGH again. However, the tourist tax will continue to be levied, says the municipality's spokesperson. If it loses again, the money will be refunded.
But Kressbronn is confident: in its judgement, the VGH showed the municipality a way in which it can ask the boat owners to pay. After all, they could use the facilities in Kressbronn as "qualified day tourists" and would have plenty of reason to do so in bad weather. Whether they actually do so is not decisive. Anyone who sails is therefore treated like a holidaymaker. And it is not only boat owners with berths on board who should pay, but everyone who has a boat and does not live in Kressbronn.
"Our berth holders don't come because of the tourist facilities," says Patricia Reuthe from Ultramarin, "they don't go to the overcrowded lido." In addition, the harbour is only financed by the operator - yet its users are still expected to pay the municipality. The court hearing before the VGH is scheduled for the autumn.
Other municipalities, such as Immenstaad and Meersburg, are also considering a visitor's tax for long-term holidaymakers. On the Bavarian shore of Lake Constance, however, there are no such plans to date.
Meanwhile, the sailors have another problem: the low water level. "Some owners can't get into their harbours," says Reuthe, although things are still "relatively good" in Kressbronn. Although Lake Constance often has little water, mostly in summer, there was no rainfall at all this year in March. In Friedrichshafen, for example, the entrance is safe for anyone with a maximum draught of 1.60 metres, says the harbour master.
