Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the mantra “build it and they will come” has powered a decade of growth. Even without Dubailand, Dubai has succeeded in diversifying its economy. Only about 1% of the city-region’s economic output is centered on oil, with a successful pivot to tourism, real estate, and travel at the core of its growth.
Meanwhile, the city of Abu Dhabi – an hour’s drive southwest along the desert coast – holds about 90% of the nation’s oil reserves and (according to CNBC) draws about 60% of its gross domestic product from petroleum. With a national economic plan of reducing oil revenue to less than 40% of GDP, the race has been on to transform Abu Dhabi into a region fueled by tourism… and one spot has been the epicenter of that evolution…
Miral Island
Just along Abu Dhabi’s coast resides the man-made, 9.7-square mile Yas Island – a purpose-built entertainment complex that’s become a centralized home to some of the more notable attractions to emerge from the UAE’s long journey to tourist stardom.
For example, Yas Island is home to Yas Waterworld – a fairly staggering water park given that, y’know, this is a geological desert. You’ll also find the Yas Marina, Yas Marina Circuit – a 3.4 mile re-configurable motorsports venue that hosts the annual Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix), the 35,000 person du Arena (which has hosted artists from Beyoncé to the rolling Stones; Rihanna to Madonna; Eminem to Andrea Bocelli), the 2.5 million square foot Yas Mall, and nine different hotels.
If you’re looking for more thrills, the island is also home to a growing roster of theme parks and attractions underscored by big names you may recognize…
It started with Ferrari World Abu Dhabi – a tremendous, 21 acre enclosed theme park that includes a number of substantial roller coasters including Flying Aces (an Intamin wing coaster), Fiorano GT Challenge (a launched, dueling family coaster), Mission Ferrari (a long-delayed “SFX coaster” dark ride that includes three launches, a see-saw track and a side-slide track), plus Formula Rossa (the world’s fastest roller coaster).
In 2018, Yas Island became home to the notable Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi – a 1.65 million square foot enclosed theme park. Given that most of us only expect to encounter Warner Bros. intellectual property in the context of Six Flags’ label-slapped DC Heroes and Looney Tunes attractions, you might be surprised to discover that Warner Bros. World is a tremendously cool park that includes lands themed to Superman, Batman, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera incarnate as well-crafted environments and some really clever attractions.
Most recent, 2023 saw the seemingly-unlikely addition of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi – yes, that SeaWorld, the one that can barely afford to operate its increasingly-starved U.S. SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks. While it’s not the whale-shaped island envisioned for Dubai back in the UAE’s height, the 2.8 million square foot indoor theme park includes eight “realms” that mix animal encounters, multimedia, and rides while also supporting the Yas SeaWorld Research and Rescue. (It was also the first SeaWorld outside of the United States, and the first to not feature orca whales – part of SeaWorld’s modern, Shamu-free reimagining.)
In 2024, Yas Island reported visitorship of 38 million people since its inception in 2006, no doubt owing to the momentum behind its theme parks. As vast and differentiated as the growing offerings on Yas Island may seem, many of them have something in common. All of the island’s theme and water parks are wholly owned and operated by the same company: Miral Group.
For the theme park enthusiasts among us (likely you if you’re still reading this 3,700 words in), add Miral to your glossary of theme park words to know. After all, it’s the Miral Group who singlehandedly paid to design, build, staff, operate, and own Yas Waterworld, Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, and SeaWorld.
Yes, each of those parks enjoys a relationship between brand and operator not unlike Tokyo Disney Resort. Which is to say that each of those brands reaps the benefits (of licensing checks, a portion of all merchandise sales, and guarantees that their choice of design firms will serve as the paid-for designers of attractions) while Miral absorbs the risks (of marketing, staffing, operating, and maintaining).
This hopefully helps explain how United Parks’ portfolio can boast both depressingly-declining SeaWorld & Busch Gardens parks in the U.S. and, seemingly, a state of the art, tech-infused, 2.8 million square foot indoor facility in the Middle East. Put simply, the SeaWorld we know didn’t pay for it. As a matter of fact, they were paid for someone else to pay for it. Miral writes the check, and SeaWorld grants the use of its name. Ta-da!
And finally, after decades of rumors and speculation, it seems that Miral has done the unthinkable, and secured the licensing deal to end all licensing deals. With a no-expense, 100% profit margin model that surely rivals Lightning Lane, Storyliving by Disney, and the GOAT of all pure-revenue-generators, Tokyo Disney Resort itself, Miral will bring Disney to Abu Dhabi.
Disney | Abu Dhabi
The announcement was made on May 8, 2025. In a surprise to no one who’s been following the developments of Miral and Yas Island, the Disney Parks Blog makes it clear:
The new resort will be fully developed and built by Miral. Disney and its legendary Imagineers will lead creative design and operational oversight to provide a world-class experience. Miral, which has developed a number of family entertainment destinations on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi in collaboration with American and European brands, will operate the resort.
“This is a thrilling moment for our company as we announce plans to build an exciting Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi, whose culture is rich with an appreciation of the arts and creativity,” said Iger. “As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting-edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways. Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati – an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world that will bring to life our timeless characters and stories in many new ways and will become a source of joy and inspiration for the people of this vast region to enjoy for generations to come.”
In the accompanying announcement, Disney luxuriated in the notion that the UAE is located within a four-hour flight of one-third of the world’s population, positioning it as a significant gateway for tourism.
Chiming in, Josh D’Amaro – current head of the Disney Experiences division – added, “Our resort in Abu Dhabi will be the most advanced and interactive destination in our portfolio. The location of our park is incredibly unique – anchored by a beautiful waterfront – which will allow us to tell our stories in completely new ways. This project will reach guests in a whole new part of the world, welcoming more families to experience Disney than ever before. Ultimately, it will be a celebration of what’s possible when creativity and progress come together.”
Obviously, it’s hardly worth trying to penetrate the art that Disney’s shown here – demonstrating the same practically-abstract vision-boarding that accompanied the announcement of Shanghai Disneyland fifteen years earlier that even with hindsight is more a visionary mood board than a site plan.
What we can pretty confidently glean is that Disney doesn’t intend to let Miral’s blank check go to waste. Even if for different motivating reasons, both companies clearly recognize the value that the other brings.
For Miral, Disney’s brand is the biggest “get” in the industry, and they’re almost certainly right to imagine that a “Disneyland Abu Dhabi” will actually result in a statistically-significant uptick to tourism in Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole. There’s tremendous value in being associated with Disney, and if – as Iger suggests – this will strengthen the UAE’s position as “the crossroads of the world” (where “about 500 million people that are income qualified, meaning they can afford to visit one of our parks, live within a four-hour plane trip here”), then the UAE will count that as a win worth any price.
For Disney, the relationship with Miral offers an opportunity unseen since, excepting Tokyo, Walt’s 1964 involvement in the World’s Fair: a chance to work with “company money.” The idea that Miral will happily bankroll new developments for Imagineering (concepts that, one can hope, will be ported to other parks eventually) is an offer too good to pass up. Here, in so many ways, is what Disney wanted from EPCOT forty years ago – a park paid for by business partners, but ultimately benefitting Disney’s bottom line.
Listen, despite the announcement’s fireworks, live orchestra, and 9,000 drones coordinating to create a crystalline, blossom-like castle over the waters of the Persian Gulf, there’s not too much to celebrate yet. For all the pomp and circumstance of a seventh Disney resort’s announcement, the truth is that global market conditions today look suspiciously like they did in 2008 – the results of which speak for themselves in the form of a still-standing Universal Studios arch-to-nowhere in the middle of the desert.
And if indeed Disney’s project in Abu Dhabi does move forward (which, more than likely, it will), the “blank check” Disney receives will be at at least some cost. Already, fans have pointed out that Disney’s self-congratulatory addition of an “Inclusion” key to its legendary and oft-copied Keys to Guest Service in 2021 looks a whole lot like performative gesturing given its choice to expand its brand to a country notorious for criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and precariously limiting the rights of women. (Don’t worry, they’ll still happily sell you Pride merch… at least, in the parks they have in countries where that’s allowed.)
Myself and many readers here may have already decided that – whether for lack of access or lack of rights – we’ll probably never step foot in Disney’s first Middle Eastern park. Even so, perhaps it’s worth daydreaming that Miral’s bankrolling here will empower a new generation of WDI technologies and concepts we’ll eventually benefit from back home?
After all, at least among those of us in the know, there won’t be an equivalent of the #ThanksShanghai hashtag we saw in 2016… When fans grumbled online that declining quality in the American parks was due to the company’s cash being spent in China. Nope. Disney won’t spend a dollar on this resort, but will still glean the benefits of new rides, attractions, and concepts. It doesn’t hurt to daydream – let’s suppose that annual licensing checks from Miral will float the division’s revenue budget so tremendously that free FastPass will make a grand return!
So even if yet another remote resort in a distant, inaccessible country with notable human rights issues that you’ll probably never visit might sour the announcement of a thirteenth Disney theme park, there are benefits to being given limitless land, all the rides you can imagine, and no budgetary constraints. Just load up Roller Coaster Tycoon and give Arid Heights a try. You’ll see.