The Walt Disney Company has announced today that they are building a 7th Disney Resort in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The resort will be constructed on Yas Island and will be the first Disney resort located in the Middle East. The Disneyland Abu Dhabi announcement came right before Disney’s first quarter earnings call for 2025.
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The Disneyland Abu Dhabi announcement came with some concept art that didn’t really reveal a lot about the new theme park and resort other than that the park would include a castle. This was confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger in an interview with Good Morning America. Bob Iger also went on saying that the park will be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati”, a phrase similar to the one he used to describe Shanghai Disney Resort when that park was first announced.
Disney is building the resort through a licensing agreement with Miral, a company that is “Abu Dhabi’s leading creator of immersive destinations and experiences”. They are also the company that owns and operates many of the family oriented attractions on Yas Island.
The new resort “will be fully developed and built by Miral” while “Disney and its legendary Imagineers will lead creative design and operational oversight to provide a world-class experience.” This is similar to the setup that Disney has with the Oriental Land Company, the organization that owns and operates Tokyo Disney Resort.
Disney has said that the park “will combine Disney’s iconic stories, characters and attractions with Abu Dhabi’s vibrant culture, stunning shorelines, and breathtaking architecture.” It’s intended to attract millions of guests from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe, with the UAE being a four hour flight from 1/3rd of the world’s population and also being the largest global airline hub in the world with over 120 million passengers transiting through Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Disney has reiterated that, since the construction of the park will be fully funded by the Miral Group, this project will not be included in the previously announced $60bn that Disney has said they will inject into the Disney Parks over the next 10 years. Upon completion, “the new theme park resort will offer signature Disney entertainment, themed accommodations, unique dining and retail experiences, and storytelling in a way that celebrates both the heritage of Disney and the futuristic and cultural essence of Abu Dhabi.” In addition, Disney announced that it will be the most technologically advanced park in the world.
No timeline was given by the The Disneyland Abu Dhabi announcement for when construction would start, but Josh D’Amaro, Chairman for Disney Experiences, has said that it would take two years to design the resort and then four to six years to build it. News outlets have also reported that Miral approached Disney and pitched the idea to them, which led to Disney executives visiting the site last September 2024 and February 2025. A deal was then quickly reached and finalized.
So here are some of my thoughts on all of this. First off, I think it’s great that Disney will become more accessible to people in this particular region. Disney fans living in the Middle East, South and Western Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe have to travel long distances to go to the nearest Disney Park. It’s an underserved market, so having a Disney park in this region makes financial sense.
I also like that Disney has reiterated that the new resort, much like Shanghai Disney Resort, will adhere to and be inspired by Emirati culture. Tailoring parks and resorts to the cultures of the regions where they exist is good as it makes all the parks unique and ensures that it will appeal to those who are local to the park, which is key to a resort’s success.
Disney faced a lot of criticism for designing Disneyland Paris without French tastes in mind, which turned a lot of locals off from visiting Disneyland Paris at the time of its opening. This announcement, together with the aforementioned Shanghai Disneyland, seems to indicate that Disney has learned from their past mistakes.
What’s also interesting is that Disney has confirmed that the project will be a resort and not just a theme park. When I initially saw the announcement, I thought they were just going to build a theme park as Yas Island is already home to a lot of standalone theme parks, but Disney has said that they will also build accommodation options as well as dining and retail spaces, making this a fully fleshed out resort.
I also have high hopes that this park is going to be amazing because it’s being fully funded by a third company not affiliated with Disney, similar to Tokyo Disney Resort. Tokyo Disney is the best Disney resort on the planet, mostly because the Oriental Land Company basically gives Disney blank checks for Imagineering to go crazy and make the most immersive, innovative experiences possible.
I’m not saying that the Miral group will do the same, but having them fund the entire construction and operation of the park gives me hope that they’ll be like OLC and really give this park the money it needs to build a one-of-a-kind experience.
Now onto my concerns. The UAE gets incredibly hot in the summer. I’m not just talking Florida hot, I’m talking over 104F and 42C temperatures. If the current plan is for the park to be outdoors, it will basically be unvisitable for 1/3rd of the year. Disney would probably have to build all of the attractions indoors to save guests from the heat.
Disney also prides itself with being THE leader in family entertainment. As such, Disney Parks have become known for their inclusivity. Every Disney park has become a safe space for millions of fans around the world. They have and always should be open and accepting of every guest, no matter who they are or where they come from. Given their decision to build a park in this location, it seems like Disney has made yet another move prioritizing profits over their core identity. We’ve seen how this prioritization of profits over everything else at Disney has been hurting the Disney parks around the world for the last decade, and this is just another example of that.
That being said, the UAE is also home to some of the biggest companies and organizations in the world. The Louvre opened a location in Abu Dhabi, and Warner Brothers has a theme park there too. Disney probably thought that, since other companies have entered the UAE, they could do the same. But none of these other companies have explicitly prided themselves on being inclusive of everyone the way Disney has. Disney set that standard for themselves, and it’s disappointing to see them throw that out the window for profit.
In the end, I’m cautiously optimistic about Disneyland Abu Dhabi. I hope it turns out amazing so that people in the region have a great park they can call their own. I wish the circumstances were different, and I’m still a little apprehensive, but I have no doubt that Disneyland Abu Dhabi is going to be one of the most stunning theme parks in the world.
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