"Little Island" a Bahrain Travel Page by katcoota

Bahrain is one of the most liberal of the Middle Eastern countries. It has a long history of being used during trade paths that went through the area. It is believed to be the centre of the lost Dilmun civilization.

Although the first oil well in the Arabian Gulf was established here, Bahrain is almost out of oil now. This has made it one of the poorest in terms of GDP in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. I know that GDP is not the best measure of wealth, but for convenience I use it.

Lack of oil has also meant that the country has had to diversity a great deal in the last couple of decades. This diversification has resulted in a huge opening up in their tourism market with lots of high class hotels even offering alcohol. This happened many years before Dubai started doing the same. Bahrain has also been trying to establish itself as the major centre in the Middle East for off-shore banking. All the big names seem to be here. They seem to be succeeding in that ambition.

Bahrain's citizens are also known as the Indians of the Middle East for the economic migration of a number of their citizens. Small compared to many countries, but large compared to the percentage of migrants from the other GCC countries. Bahrain is also known as the Bar, due to the large number of visitors from Saudi Arabia who for the weekends to indulge in some drinking.