Funds for St. Gallen tourism promotion to be increased

The four tourism organizations of regional importance in the canton of St. Gallen - Heidiland, Rapperswil-Zürichsee, Toggenburg, St. Gallen-Bodensee - can receive financial support for services in marketing. The canton keeps a tourism account for this purpose. This is a closed financing cycle: The funds come from the lodging and hospitality taxes collected by the municipalities. In addition, half of the Kursaal tax, which is paid by the B-Casino in Bad Ragaz, has been added so far. This tourism bill has become increasingly unbalanced. "Falling numbers of overnight stays in the canton reduced the income from the accommodation tax," it says in the documents for the consultation. At the same time, the tax on the casino in Bad Ragaz "has been declining for years". The reason given is the intensified competitive situation due to the casinos in the Principality of Liechtenstein.

Pandemic led to further outages

The pandemic has further aggravated the situation. The canton waived the accommodation and hospitality taxes for tourism businesses in 2020 and 2021 as support. All these factors now mean that the reserves in the tourism account would probably be depleted in 2023. The government therefore wants to take 2.2 million francs from the special equity capital as a one-time contribution to compensate for the shortfalls during the pandemic. In addition, the entire Kursaal levy is to be used for tourism promotion in the future. Until now, half of it went into the state budget. There, the government expects annual revenue shortfalls of 900,000 francs. The revision will also abolish the support for tourism projects, which allowed cantonal contributions to individual hotel buildings. The support possibilities within the framework of the New Regional Policy (NRP) are not affected by this, the State Chancellery announced on Thursday. The consultation on the bill lasts until April 14. (SDA)