News Disney and Miral Announce New Seventh Theme Park Planned for Abu Dhabi

[Lilofan]

Just from the GCC free movement area (citizens of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, and Kuwait, can work, live, and visit within the various member countries without hassle or permit, much like the EU) you've got a population bigger than the population of Spain and Portugal, most of whom have the money to be able to visit such a park. That's not including international visitors from within the wider Middle East, India, North Africa, and Europe. Or elsewhere. Right now do a lot of Americans go? No. But considering that between the two (or three, if you consider Dubai's new airport really operational yet) main airports in the UAE many American cities have direct flights to the country, it's not an impossibility. And certainly Europeans have even easier access than we do, while this will almost certainly grab the attention of every moderate to high wealth theme park fan in the world who will, or Disney hopes they will, plan a trip there unless they have ideological concerns. You add the Disney name and marketing on top of it, and there's no reason why a full-blown resort, with proper investment, couldn't have reached 10 million visitors a year. Would it have cannibalized Paris? Maybe a little, but Paris is also far more accessible to Western Europeans. This isn't a Brazil situation where heavy investment would have being a knife in the gut to a major market.

As for existing parks, most of them are size limited. Motiongate and other parks in Dubai proper have less of this as an issue, part of the reason why I truly believe Disney should have tried their hands at a more ambitious goal, but it is still important to consider. You don't see a lot of Western marketing for WB AD despite the fact that it is probably the only park in the regionbuilt with true Western theme park standards in mind. Arguably if they would have plopped that down in Orlando, it would have automatically have been a world-class park with five times as many visitors minimum as it gets now. But the UAE as a whole is still developing as a tourism destination, and most other parks are nowhere near as good. I have faith that WDI will actually make an effort here and not make it suck.

As for Hong Kong, well they have some very particular issues the UAE doesn't. For one thing, The tens of millions of people nearby have a far easier time getting to it, both in terms of physical access and paperwork, because Hong Kong requires all mainland Chinese to have extensive paperwork to visit. The UAE doesn't care. While it's not visa free for westerners yet (hopefully that does change), it is a free visa on arrival. Hong Kong gains a point here. They are legitimately visa-free, but for most people are in a terribly out of the way location to actually visit unless you're in the area. The fact that Hong Kong gets more people in through their airport, is less of a function of being able to say HKDL isn't doing well as a theme park, and more to say that they have a really good airport. And that's not even talking about the frequent closures, lack of investment for years, and general apathy in the Disney fandom for the resort, all of which have played a role in Hong Kong effectively being viewed as the red-headed stepchild of Disney resorts.

Another funny fact is that the local airport for AD has a US pre-clearance facility, the only one outside of North America. So Americans will be able to fly home as domestic passengers, saving them gigantic amounts of time compared to visiting, for example, Paris. Granted the US government has continually tried to expand the number of preclearance facilities internationally, but it has been slow going even under other administrations.Personally I hope they work towards Europe, Japan, and maybe Dubai, but who knows.

This deal makes some sense because Disney and Universal been looking at the Middle East for probably a solid 20 years as a future option, but the structure of the deal without Disney having an equity stake or full ownership, never mind the scale of the resort, leaves me scratching my head and wondering if Bob is chasing the bag rather than an investment that could pay off in 20 years with a resort that rivals Tokyo in terms of prestige and Orlando in terms of size. They could absolutely do it, they have the money, the land is cheap, and you have a line of skilled professional designers and project managers who will work on this project that have experienced working in the industry in the Middle East. Kind of crazy they don't actually, from the point of view of someone who is thinking long-term rather than short. The size constraints alone are going to wreak havoc on this investment long-term. Expanding out into the ocean will only get so far...

Shortly before Eisner left. Iger and him visited India for scouting for new theme park to be built that never happened.

 

[FettFan]

Am I the only one who cannot tell what’s going on in the concept art?

Concept art? I thought it was a midcentury abstract...

 

[Smiley/OCD]

What’s the current betting line at Caesars for him going anywhere?

Me thinks the BoD just found THE reason to keep him around….

 

[Comped]

Shortly before Eisner left. Iger and him visited India for scouting for new theme park to be built that never happened.

India was never a serious market for a theme park especially not when Eisner was still in office. Disney could build a thousand of those mini Disney experiences like they had planned for American malls in the early 1980s before Eisner came in, but a theme park in India would never have worked. The UAE does not have the problems India does, politically, economically, or otherwise. It never happened because it was never going to work.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Me thinks the BoD just found THE reason to keep him around….

They’re just waiting for him to tell them what to say in the presser

 

[Drdcm]

This was not on my bingo card.

I had Disneyland Pyongyang and Disneyland Khartoum on my bingo card. This was a huge surprise

 

[thomas998]

I'm not sure that is a good analogy. I don't think Disney is lamenting the foregone revenue in re-releasing their classics at the cinema for the massive amounts they made in VHS and DVD sales or the customers they gained who grew up watching those movies repeatedly. Cinematic re-releases belonged to a pre-home entertainment era and it was inevitable they would die out.


Also not sure about that. I think this is more about attracting visitors from the region than expecting people to travel from Europe to Abu Dhabi for a Disney theme park. For a start, there is already one in Europe.

This park is going to be part of an existing tourist development with two existing theme parks, a water park, hotels, shopping malls, and I'm sure other attractions. I don't love Disney licensing Disneyland out to be an addition to an existing tourism complex, but I imagine that's how the developers are seeing it and are justifying the investment as a way to bring in more visitors to the whole complex. At least my impression is that this is not going to be given the same kind of push as a stand-alone Disney resort. It's more akin to Universal Singapore on a grander scale.

Abu Dhabi's international mix of visitors only had 20% from the middle eastern area. They have been and are trying to pull in visitors from outside that area. The UK alone accounts for more tourist into Abu Dhabi than Saudi Arabia which is right next door.

 

[hopemax]

I hope they were that smart. Do I think they will? No. I don't think they did they just saw the dollar signs. If they would have been smart they would have built it in a different part of the country where they could have built an Orlando style resort and owned it all themselves. It would have been a riskier play financially, but would have paid off in dividends for the next 50 to 70 years.

It's the politics of previous decisions. Disney more or less set fire to the Lake Nona project over DeSantis and LGBT rights, a project that was just as if not more important long-term to the company than this park. People are very upset that this appears to be a u-turn, when in reality I don't think domestic politics has a darn thing to do with them announcing this park when they did. Money is money is money. while I do think that Disney has very quickly realized that US politics has realigned from where they were, this is purely a financial deal for them at this point. (They'll regret not having equity but that's besides the point.) Now I just hope that this will require enough imagineers on this side of the continent for time reasons that it becomes easier to get a job at WDI, and maybe Lake Nona returns. Who am I kidding, they'll probably run it out of California like always despite the time difference.

I think you're wrong here. I don't think this partnership happens if November went differently. Or January, February, March, or April. Company growth would be expected to come in other ways, and now they're frantically pivoting to find projects that won't run into a brick wall of the current admin's policies and interests. I suspect while there might have been some "sure, we can talk" discussions before now, this specific project was thrown together extremely fast and only in the last couple months and the lack of details, the concept art which is just colorful splotches reflects that. The headline "Disney partners with UAE company," is the important part of this announcement, more than financial considerations. If this is actually built and successful, it will be viewed as a bonus. This isn't about organically growing Disney's interests and global footprint, as a full-fledged resort would be. It's about having something to hopefully allow Disney to "outrun the bear" over the next few years. The US is a hot potato, traditional US / International business environments are being upended, and even US companies will be looking for exit routes to deal with the internal instabilities. Safe revenue streams are taking on entirely new meaning, with the risk that with as much geopolitical turmoil as there seems to be for the immediate future, finding a well-endowed International dance partner is a far better strategy than a lot of other options.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Disney fans: "Look at Universal! They're expanding to different countries/areas like Texas and Britain! Disney is for sure done for, they don't open new parks"

Nobody has said this.

Disney fans: "Why are we expanding into new parks when our current lands are not good enough?"

Nobody with enough of a brain to realize they're not spending money here has said this either. But yes, much of WDW needs work and should have gotten the attention years ago.

Disney fans: "Why are they replacing stuff? They have so much space!?"

Valid argument to make.

Disney fans: "Now this park is going to be too busy and I can't do everything in one day so I have to buy more tickets! Disney is just adding expansions that don't make sense so they can sell more!"

Nobody has said this either.

 

[FettFan]

Video of the announcement:



Article:

Disney Announces New Theme Park with Miral in Abu Dhabi

The Walt Disney Company and Miral announced an agreement to create a landmark Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

disneyparksblog.com

Renderings:

 

[Purduevian]

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Looks interesting. Right now it would be higher up my list of "to visit" parks than wdw.

@guardianmonkey , Did I say something funny ?

 

[The Mom]

Please keep political and social/cultural commentary out of this.

 

[Ghost93]

Am I the only one who cannot tell what’s going on in the concept art?

I'm 99% certain the central castle is Elsa's ice palace. I also think a Zootopia skyscraper is mixed in there somewhere.

Since Disney isn't paying the bills, I wonder if this park may be even more expensive/lavish than the US ones or if it will be a downgrade. Could go either way.

 

[The Mom]

BTW, I also would not visit for a variety of reasons I choose not to post due to forum guidelines.

 

[Lilofan]

BTW, I also would not visit for a variety of reasons I choose not to post due to forum guidelines.

The cool part about social media is millions or billions can view the experiences posted online and live the Disney Magic . Many in this world will never set foot in a Disney park for various reasons.

 

[mickEblu]

Well at least we know which park is finally getting that Aladdin ride.

 

[Lilofan]

Well at least we know which park is finally getting that Aladdin ride.

Costuming better start designing cast costumes to acclimate to that heat !

 

[Disstevefan1]

Does EPCOT get an Abu Dhabi pavilion/preview center?

At least a food booth at the festivals I hope

 

[marni1971]

Another funny fact is that the local airport for AD has a US pre-clearance facility, the only one outside of North America.

Dublin has one (really!)

But I like a lot of your points (for what it’s worth). Is it wrong we’ve priced up flights and measured the driving distance to Dubai and back?!