Why Disney Chose Abu Dhabi
While everyone was staring left, Disney pivoted right.
Due to a series of spectacular segment performances and one STUNNING announcement, Disney stock just increased $15 in two days.
Photo: Bank rate
Why did investors suddenly change their tune on Disney overnight? The company told them exactly what they wanted to hear.
Here are a few reasons why Disney chose the Middle East for its next theme park.
500 Million Potential New Customers
A dear friend of mine is an actual, bona fide Arabian prince.
You’re probably envisioning Aladdin, but he’s shaped like a middle linebacker and works as a Director of Sales in Canada.
Photo: Disney
Whenever he visits his home country, he’s treated like royalty because, well, he is.
And one of the things he’s always made clear about his home country is that its beauty is unrivaled on Earth.
I haven’t spoken with him about the Disney theme park coming to Abu Dhabi. However, I’ve been thinking about him a lot.
He’s someone who has been saying for years that Abu Dhabi tourism was a sleeping giant.
Saudiprojects.con
Now, we’ve got data that proves the point. Miral’s CEO, Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, has pointed out that theme park visits have increased by 20 percent.
Hotel occupancy rates, tourist per capita spending, and any number of other metrics are up by double digits as well.
Forbes
Abu Dhabi is a boomtown, and Yas Island has become the epicenter of its explosive growth.
Now, Disney will encourage people like my friend who miss their homeland to take a family vacation there.
Wikipedia
Meanwhile, those who live in the area – and Disney estimates half a billion people reside within a four-hour flight radius – can go, too.
While describing the decision, Disney CEO Bob Iger described these consumers as “income qualified.”
Photo: Variety
What he really means is that Disney can set virtually any price it wants. Thousands of guests will still pay.
In short, Disney anticipates a heavily trafficked theme park that will lure deep-pocketed guests from multiple continents.
Location, Location, Location
miral
Best of all, Disney won’t pay a dime for the development. Quite the opposite, Miral WILL PAY DISNEY for the privilege.
This is one of Disney’s best business partnerships ever, and my friend underscores the why of it.
Currently, he’d fly about 15 hours from his home to Abu Dhabi as opposed to six hours to Walt Disney World.
His kids would complain the entire, super-long flight home…unless Disney were at the other end.
Photo: Videvo.net
I know this to be true because Middle Easterners who visit Walt Disney World and Disneyland fly for 18 and a half to 22 hours as a rule.
Now, they happily do that to take their children to the Happiest and Most Magical Places on Earth.
Photo: Fortune
The appeal of a Disney theme park in Abu Dhabi is that it cuts that flight time by more than 75 percent…while still leading to a Disney visit.
If we use round numbers, the Middle East comprises about five percent of the planet’s land mass but more than six percent of its population.
(Photo by MN Chan/Getty Images)
Despite the large swaths of desert land, it’s still a highly trafficked area. Due to the economic strength of this oil-laden region, it’s also a wealthy one.
And the influx of daily traffic would be more than enough to sustain a Disney theme park.
Photo: Disney
Iger suggests that 120 million people will travel to Dubai/Abu Dhabi in 2025 alone. Folks, Orlando claimed 74 million in 2023.
Now, you could argue that this comparison isn’t fair in that a staggering percentage of Orlando tourists were there specifically for Walt Disney World.
Disney
Still, Abu Dhabi already attracts an impressive number of tourists BEFORE adding a Disney theme park.
You can imagine what these numbers will be like the year after the Disneyland Abi Dhabi park opens.
Photo:visitorlando.com
Even better, those people who were flying for a day to visit the American Disney parks no longer have a need to do so.
This one is as close for them as Walt Disney World and Disneyland are for most of us in the continental United States.
Reasons Not to Choose Other Places
National Geographic Kids
In recent years, two other countries have been rumored to add Disney theme parks.
The locations most frequently mentioned were India and Singapore.
National Geographic Kids
If you’ve kept up with the news lately, you fully understand why building a theme park anywhere in India is less than ideal right now.
Pakistan and India currently blame one another for an escalating series of violent acts, with the two countries constantly on the brink of open war.
Photo: John E Reed
Perhaps proving the logic of The Sherman Brothers and It’s a Small World, if Disney did build a theme park in India, Pakistanis would loyally support it.
However, Disney won’t imperil anyone right now, which likely pushes back this possibility for at least a decade.
Photo: D23
The current timeline for the Abu Dhabi version of a Disney theme park will take two years to plan and five years to construct.
So, the earliest plausible opening date is 2032, although it ostensibly could go faster if the right people wanted it done faster.
Photo: Disney
Personally, I’d consider a rush job a mistake, as that’s what went wrong with Disney California Adventure.
On the bright side, Miral is flush with capital, making a Disney theme park likely to be majestic in scope and style.
Photo: Wikimedia
As for Singapore, land acquisition always struck me as the sticking point for this possibility.
While real estate valuation always proves challenging due to the wide range of metrics, Singapore is sometimes listed as the most expensive country.
Photo: vecteezy.com
I’d argue that the answer is actually Monaco, with other countries like Japan and the United States in the conversation as well.
Still, Singapore real estate often starts at $3,000 per square foot in construction.
Since no equivalent of Miral has offered to foot the bill, Disney isn’t likely to pay that price.
The Hidden Reason
Photo: Pexel.com
Have you ever heard about the viral popularity of Lotso in mainland China? It’s become a curiosity for many merchandising analysts.
From their perspective, Lotso only appeared in a single Pixar movie, Toy Story 3, where the character behaved as the antagonist.
Lotso Bear at Disney Jollywood Nights
So, why are Chinese toy buyers so obsessed with a Disney villain? This person recently went into detail about the mystery:
How did this happen? When the city of Hong Kong enticed Disney to build a theme park there, it built a bridge.
Photo: Disney
Later, Shanghai Disneyland extended the bridge to the mainland, with Iger developing a relationship with the leadership of the Chinese government.
Disney has significantly benefited from this alliance, selling exponentially more merchandise and releasing more films in China than any other foreign studio.
The Disney Flywheel Will Spin More
Photo: Getty
During the fiscal second quarter earnings call and an accompanying appearance on CNBC, Iger explained the reason why.
“…Another thing to consider is that every time we’ve built a park in another region of the world, it has lifted the Disney brand considerably.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“So, we saw this in Paris years ago and obviously in Japan, where our brand is one of the strongest brands in Japan to this day.
“We’ve seen it in Shanghai and the impact on the rest of China and in Hong Kong.
Image: Disney
“This will have a very positive impact on the perception of the company, on the brand, and actually on many of our businesses in a region, again, where we haven’t had a brand flag planted as significantly and as deeply as this one will be when it opens.”
In Japan, the equivalent of Lotso is Duffy, the theme park bear who is dramatically more popular there than in the United States.
Disney
So, the question you should be asking is which Disney character will become the United Arab Emirates equivalent to Lotso and Duffy.
In short, Iger’s company will sell more merchandise due to a partnership where Miral pays all the expenses, including a licensing fee to Disney.
Photo: Disney
There’s simply no downside to this deal, which explains why Disney has chosen Abu Dhabi for its seventh theme park.
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Feature Photo: Disney
