The $35.6 Billion Driving Force Behind Disney’s Next Theme Park

Disney is doubling down on its plans to build its next theme park in Abu Dhabi. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

LightRocket via Getty Images

Few brands in the theme park industry are more global than Disney but for decades the Middle East has been a blind spot. That all changed in May last year when it announced that its next park would be built in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since then Disney has doubled down on these plans and new data reveals the reason for this.

This author broke the news about the Abu Dhabi park on social media the week before it was announced. It was followed by a report for Forbes previewing the announcement which was met with scepticism from fans with Disney Tourist Blog saying “I’ll eat my words here if this gets announced with detailed aerial concept art.” Laughing Place, another Disney fan site, described the Abu Dhabi park as a “plausible impossible” before it removed its report.

It appeared to have been tipped off that it was on the wrong track because soon afterwards Disney dropped the bombshell about its new park. Precisely as my Forbes report forecast, Disney announced it had signed a strategic partnership agreement with Miral, the Middle East’s leading theme park operator.

In just the past 15 years Miral has built up a portfolio of world-class indoor theme parks on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island leisure destination. They include Warner Bros. World, SeaWorld and Ferrari World and they all have the same business model which Disney too will follow.

Miral will fund, develop and build the new park which will use Disney’s characters and Intellectual Property under a license. In return, Disney is expected to receive royalties based on a percentage of the tickets and merchandise sales. Disney will also provide operational oversight though the new park will be operated by Miral which is contracting Disney’s Imagineers – architects named after their imaginative use of engineering – to design it.

I revealed that Zach Riddley, one of Imagineering’s leading lights, is in charge of the project but, other than that, news about the development has been thin on the ground. In September Riddley revealed that the park’s centerpiece castle will have water at its heart, as it will sit on the coast. Likewise, in January, Disney’s former chief executive Bob Iger hinted at the park’s location in an Instagram post.

However, the following month dark clouds gathered over the Middle East thanks to the onset of the war on Iran by Israel and the United States. The conflict is still gripping the region and there is no resolution in sight. At the heart of the dispute is the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping route to the UAE which Iran has effectively closed by firing on passing ships that it doesn’t approve of. In just the past three days it has hit two ships connected to Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC bringing the total number of its vessels attacked by Iran to 18.

As I reported, Miral renewed its commitment to the Disney park soon after the war began. However, when Disney’s next earnings call took place in May, eminent theme park pundit Robert Niles questioned whether the media giant’s intention was to “hedge its plans for Abu Dhabi”.

As Niles pointed out on Theme Park Insider, Disney’s new chief executive Josh D’Amaro wrote in a letter to shareholders that “the strategic logic of our Abu Dhabi plans is unchanged.” Niles noted that “the subject in that sentence is not ‘our Abu Dhabi plans.’ It’s ‘logic.’ In other words, Disney said that its rationale for pursuing a new theme park in a new market remains unchanged. It did not say that its specific plans for Abu Dhabi remain as they were before the Iran’s attacks on the United Arab Emirates in response to the United States’ and Israel’s attacks on Iran.”

Niles rightly noted that Disney’s latest annual report, from November last year, confirmed that “the development of the resort is subject to finalizing agreements among the parties.” Furthermore, he said that “to date, I have seen no filing or statement from Disney that such finalizing agreements have been made.”

When Disney’s next earnings call took place last week it cleared up the uncertainty. In response to a question from Rosenblatt Securities about the impact of the war, Disney’s chief financial officer Hugh Johnston said “as it relates to Abu Dhabi, look, that new park is being designed with a long-term view. These are multi-year projects to put in place. And obviously, once we put them in place, they last decades and decades. We continue to believe in the strategic rationale behind the project, and we are fully committed to seeing that project through.”

It didn’t just address the question raised by Niles but also Lightshed Partners, a technology, media and telecommunications research firm which claimed a few days earlier that Disney may be reconsidering its plans for Abu Dhabi. In reality, there is no point in Disney pulling out of the project as it isn’t committing any capital, just its brand and characters.

The precise location of the park hasn’t even been officially announced though it has been an open secret since Iger’s Instagram post. Likewise, neither Disney nor Miral have given an opening timeframe for the park so it wouldn’t make sense to refer to it being delayed, let alone canceled.

All D’Amaro has said is that a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build. The timing of any major new construction projects in the UAE which rely on freight arriving by sea depends on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Shipping through the crucial waterway has come to an almost complete standstill causing delays to projects which were even largely complete before war broke out.

One example is the UAE’s first casino resort, the Wynn Al Marjan Island, was originally due to open in the first quarter of 2027 but was recently delayed to September. It hasn’t deterred Disney.

At its D23 convention in Anaheim this weekend Disney is playing a sizzle reel of footage from Imagineering research trips to the Al Ain Oasis in the Abu Dhabi desert and the Qasr Al Watan palace which is operated by Miral. As I revealed, new concept art has also been released and shows that the park won’t be entirely indoors like its neighbors. A model of the park and further concept art is expected to be released today and during the finale of the upcoming Worldbuilders documentary about the design of Disney’s parks. There is good reason why the Mouse is doubling down on Abu Dhabi.

The UAE has a wide catchment area to draw on as one-third of the world’s population is located within a four-hour flight of the country. It is also part of the largest global airline hub in the world, with 120 million passengers traveling through Abu Dhabi and Dubai each year. In order to welcome them as workers and tourists, the UAE has some of the friendliest visa regulations of any country as this report revealed. It casts a powerful spell.

According to new research from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the theme park industry’s global trade body, attractions in the Middle East and Africa attracted a massive 738 million visits in 2024 generating $19.2 billion in direct revenue. IAAPA’s chief executive Jakob Wahl said that “tourism recreation spending in the region is projected to grow by 19% by 2030, reaching $35.6 billion, reinforcing the long-term growth and opportunity in this market.” Disney will get a healthy cut of that without even needing to invest a dime and that really is a happy ending.