Hopefully, when archaeologists examine the digital remains of our society in the distant future, they will not measure the importance of various phenomena based on the length of their Wikipedia articles: otherwise, given the abundance that is collected in the online lexicon under “tank tourism”, they would have to come to the conclusion that people in those days went to a lot of trouble for their cars. The German-language version of the article gives a particularly detailed look at the specific travel behavior between Germany and Austria. One passage is also interesting for people alive today. According to this, fuel was cheaper in several of Austria’s neighboring countries in the 1980s and 1990s, which is why there were “long waiting times at the first gas stations just across the border” – also on the Bavarian side.
In order to correctly classify the phenomenon, future archaeologists must imagine at this point how everyone else rubs their eyes in disbelief. In fact, tank tourism has long been going in the other direction, even more so in these sad times. “ADAC expects more tank tourism because of the Ukraine war,” the media have already reported. Although fuel prices are rising here and there, in the end there is still a lower number over there. In the middle of last week you paid an average of 1.83 euros for a liter of Super in Germany, compared to 1.45 euros in Austria.
Of course, the main tank tourists that stand out are locals from border areas and people passing through. Because if you go there too far to fill up, your tank threatens to be empty again at the end of the way back. However, fuel prices are likely to continue to rise if the pressure on the purse increases. And as some hoteliers on the edge of the Alps know to lament, the Tyroleans in particular have not been fooled when it comes to tourism marketing. So it’s quite possible that the holiday columns will soon no longer roll south because of the beautiful view of the mountains, but because of the beautiful view of the price table at the gas station. Should that actually happen, the future archaeologists might rub their eyes even more.