Let’s Sign a Petition: Mercedes Cars Should Cost the Same as KIAs

Please visit Lebanon

There’s a petition making the rounds in Lebanon’s interwebs that is demanding visa reciprocity between Lebanon and the Schengen countries of Europe. One website, Bala Visa took the effort to calculate the cost of obtaining a Schengen visa for Lebanese passport holders and found it to cost $452.

This being Lebanon, the land of do you know who you’re talking with?, there’s a nice little sense of outrage and indignation across the blogosphere (and Facebook, and twitter).. The conclusion is that Lebanon should charge Europeans — who breeze across Lebanese borders without heavy visa requirements — the same amount to get a visa to Lebanon. This is a matter of dignity and fairness, they grumble.

Let me get this straight out of the way: This is a completely meaningless excercise and it won’t go anywhere. The Lebanese will cue up for European visas even if they cost $1,000 and many Europeans will stop visiting Lebanon if they had to pay $50 for a visa. It’s just the way it is. We want to go to Europe more than Europeans want to come to Lebanon, and in terms of tourist spending per visited country’s GDP, a European visitor in Lebanon is much more valuable than a Lebanese tourist in Europe. (Fun fact: By that same measure, Saudi visitors in Lebanon are much more valuable than European visitors)

There is something a little condescending, a little off-putting about the Bala Visa website. Poor us helpless souls, if only we knew how much we’re paying for that visa, we would stop applying for it. Thank God there’s someone out there who’s doing the math so that we could see the errors of our ways. Newsflash: We are not paying $452 because we didn’t know how much we’re paying, we are paying $452 because we think the Schengen is worth $452.

Does this mean that we should stop caring about how unfair this is? Of course not. If you really think you shouldn’t pay $452 to get a European visa, don’t do it. Make it a point and enjoy the Lebanese sun instead.