On Wednesday morning’s Q2 FY25 earnings results webcast, The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger spoke about their decision to build a new theme park in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Disney Goes to Abu Dhabi
“We did study the region very carefully, and we know we had many opportunities,” Iger said. “Obviously, building a theme park in a location is a huge endorsement of the location that speaks volumes in terms of the ability of that location to sustain the Disney theme park.”
The theme park will be constructed and operated on Yas Island by Abu Dhabi entertainment company Miral. Disney will oversee creative development of what Iger described as their “most technologically advanced theme park” yet, with their “first modern castle.”
Iger pointed to the demand for Disney experiences in the Middle East, within reach of millions of potential guests who aren’t able to travel to current Disney destinations.
It was very obvious to us that there were many people — basically hundreds of millions in the world that are income qualified, where a trip to one of our six locations was pretty lengthy in nature and expensive. And so, we felt the best way obviously to reach those people is to basically bring our product to them.
Bob Iger
He also referenced the new Disney Cruise Line ship Disney Adventure, which will sail out of Singapore. Iger noted that the ship’s initial sailings “sold out in a matter of days,” showing “a desire for consumers to engage with Disney in a wide region.”
Everywhere we looked, we were convinced that this was a perfect place for us. Of all the places that we could choose from, there did not seem to be any place that is better than this.
Bob Iger
The UAE is located within a four-hour flight of one-third of the world’s population. It’s home to the largest airline hub in the world, with over 120 million passengers traveling through Abu Dhabi and Dubai each year.
“As we started to really dig deeper into Abu Dhabi specifically and engage with our partners, obviously, capital was not an issue,” Iger explained. “But in addition to that, they’ve demonstrated a number of things that were really important to us. One, a real appreciation of quality and innovation, and appreciation of the arts and creativity, and a huge commitment to take new technology, and we were impressed with all of that. We also looked at what they’ve already built […] and everywhere we look, we basically were convinced that this was a perfect place for us.”
Watch our video of the new theme park’s announcement:
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