2025-05-07
Walt Disney has chosen Abu Dhabi for its first theme park in the Middle East, a major expansion that would place the company’s seventh park on Yas Island in partnership with local developer Miral.
The announcement gives Disney a new foothold in a region it has not previously entered with a full-scale theme park resort. Disney already operates six parks in North America, Europe and Asia, with its most recent opening having been in Shanghai in 2016. The Abu Dhabi project is being framed by the company as both a tourism play and a strategic entry point into a region connected to a huge proportion of the world’s population.
Yas Island, a 10-square-mile development about 20 minutes from downtown Abu Dhabi and 50 minutes from Dubai, is already a major leisure destination. Miral, the company working with Disney, also operates SeaWorld and Warner Bros World on the island and is developing a Harry Potter-themed park. In Disney’s telling, the United Arab Emirates sits within a four-hour flight of one-third of the world’s population, while the Abu Dhabi-Dubai aviation corridor handles about 120 million passengers a year.
That transport scale is central to the logic of the project. Disney’s statement described the UAE as a “significant gateway for tourism,” suggesting the park is designed not just for domestic visitors but for regional and long-haul travel flows. The company’s chief executive, Robert Iger, called the plan a “thrilling” moment and said the park would be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati.”
Miral’s chairman or chief executive, Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, described the project as a milestone for Yas Island and said it would help advance the destination’s standing as a place for entertainment and leisure. He also said the development would support sustained economic growth in Abu Dhabi and beyond.
Disney’s expansion into Abu Dhabi is notable because the company has spent decades building parks in a limited number of global markets. Disneyland opened in 1955 in California, followed by Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971. International growth began in Tokyo in 1983, then Paris in 1992, Hong Kong in 2005 and Shanghai in 2016. The Middle East had remained outside that map until now.
The Abu Dhabi project also comes at a time when Disney is reporting strong financial momentum. On the same day, the company said revenue for the first three months of 2025 rose 7% to $23.6bn, while Disney+ added 1.4 million subscribers. The parks business also benefited from higher attendance and greater spending by visitors, with cruise bookings rising after the launch of Disney Treasure.
The new park therefore sits at the intersection of brand expansion, tourism economics and regional infrastructure. Disney is betting that Yas Island can support a destination resort with global reach, and that Abu Dhabi can serve as a hub for visitors who might otherwise never encounter a Disney park in the Middle East.
