Just over a year after Disney announced plans to open its first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi, the company has confirmed the project remains on track despite mitigating circumstances since the start of the Iran war on February 28.
In a letter to shareholders released alongside the company’s latest quarterly earnings, Disney chief executive Josh D'Amaro said the “strategic logic” behind the Abu Dhabi project remains unchanged, marking one of the clearest public reaffirmations of Disney’s commitment to the development since it was announced.
“We have multiple experience expansions under way using a capital-light model, including working with established local operators to bring a new cruise ship to Japan and a theme park resort to Abu Dhabi,” D’Amaro said in the statement.
“The strategic logic of our Abu Dhabi plans is unchanged. Major new theme parks are necessarily long term in nature given the lead time of these projects, and this investment approach has consistently benefited our business.”
The Abu Dhabi resort will become Disney’s seventh theme park destination worldwide and its first in the Middle East. The project is being developed in partnership with Miral, the company behind Yas Island attractions, including Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and Yas Waterworld.
Under the agreement, Miral will fully fund, build and operate the resort, while Disney oversees creative development and receives royalties through the aforementioned capital-light business model.
When the project was announced, D’Amaro described the Abu Dhabi destination as Disney’s “most advanced and interactive” resort to date. Speaking to Reuters, he said a project of that scale could take between one and two years to design, followed by another four to six years of construction.
Although few details about the resort have been revealed so far, former Disney chief executive Bob Iger appeared to hint at the location of the park earlier this year.
In January, Iger shared two photos on Instagram with the caption: “Walking the site of what will one day be Disneyland Abu Dhabi! Lots of work ahead, but all very exciting!”
In one of the images, a small jetty can be seen in the background. A similar structure appears on Google Maps on the northern edge of Yas Island, an area that remains largely undeveloped.
Another image showed a Yas sign in the background that appeared similar to signage around Yas North, along the E12 Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Highway near the western entrance to the island.
