Eckernförde charges a visitor tax (Kurabgabe) per person per day: EUR 3.00 during the main season (1 April–15 October) and EUR 2.00 during the low season (16 October–31 March), including statutory VAT. The arrival day is not charged; the stay is otherwise counted by days. On application, the charge can be paid as an annual lump sum of EUR 84.00 per liable person (equivalent to 28 main-season days), with prior payments credited. The EUR 3.00 figure is the high-season adult rate; children under 18 are exempt.
Exempt, subject to proof where applicable: children and young people under 18; severely disabled persons with a proven degree of disability of at least 80%, plus a permanent accompanying person where the disability pass bears the code “B”; people present in the area for work, business, professional duties or education; participants in approved conferences, congresses, courses or other events registered with ETMG before arrival; bedridden ill or injured people unable to use the facilities, with a medical certificate; specified relatives of residents whose principal home is in the area when accommodated free of charge in the resident’s household; owners of residential or holiday units in Eckernförde and owners of permanently moored sports boats, plus their family members whose ordinary residence is elsewhere; and people present because of a death. The normal liable group is visitors without their habitual residence in the area who can use the spa facilities; the exemption conditions must be demonstrated. Persons in an employment or training relationship in the area are not liable.
The Kurabgabe rules cover short-term accommodation providers, including guest-room/holiday-unit landlords, owners or permanent users who make a unit available to third parties, camping and motorhome-site operators, hostel/home operators, and operators of guest berths or paid overnight accommodation on boats. Every host must register each accommodated person with ETMG using the prescribed registration process, provide the ostseecard, and record name, home address, age where under 18, arrival/departure dates, and the host’s name and address. The 2023 rules make the electronic registration system mandatory for all Eckernförde hosts, with an exception only potentially available in hardship cases. The host calculates and collects the Kurabgabe, remits it to ETMG, keeps the cards/forms accounted for, and must display the rules. The official visitor-tax materials specify no registration number and do not state a Wohnraumschutz permit or Zweckentfremdungsverbot; those matters are not established by this source.