Niles: Disney celebrates 70 years of Disneyland with its 7th theme park resort ...Middle East

Nearly 70 years after Walt Disney welcomed fans to his new vision for family entertainment, The Walt Disney Company introduced its brand of theme park attractions to a new part of the world.

I was in Abu Dhabi last week for the shock announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi — the company’s seventh theme park resort. Like at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan, Disney will partner with a local company to build and operate its Abu Dhabi park. That company is Miral, which has won international acclaim for the other three parks that it has built on its Yas Island resort: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2023.

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Miral had invited journalists from around the world to the resort just one week prior for a 15th anniversary event, but that seemed a bit suspicious of an occasion for an international press gathering on such short notice. Other reporters and I quickly assembled clues and suspected that the event actually would be a Disney announcement.

After the press briefing at Yas Island’s W Hotel — known to Formula One fans as the hotel in the middle of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit — Miral celebrated the announcement with the most impressive Disney nighttime spectacular I ever have seen. Pianist Lang Lang joined a 100-member live orchestra, a choir and Broadway singers for a production that included fireworks, fountains and 9,000 drones forming Disney castles in the sky.

If Miral wanted to tell the world that it would spare no expense to create the greatest version of Disney yet, the show delivered that message clearly.

The Abu Dhabi agreement amounts to free money for The Walt Disney Company. Miral will pay to build and operate Disney Abu Dhabi. Disney will need to make no capital investment of its own. Disney will not enjoy ownership of the Abu Dhabi resort, but it should look forward to years of royalty payments from Miral for its license of Disney’s IP and designs.

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But that does not mean that Disney faces no risk in proceeding with this new resort. Disney puts its brand value at stake with each major new product, including this one. That is one reason why Disney chose to partner with Miral, which has proven that it can build, open and operate a leading, world-class theme park. Many companies in the region have promised to do that, but none have succeeded like Miral.

In making a deal with Miral and Abu Dhabi, Disney reportedly spurned advances from Saudi Arabia, which has been soliciting partners for its upcoming Qiddiya mega resort. Perhaps that might quiet complaints from Americans concerned about the rights of marginalized groups in the region. Socially, Abu Dhabi and Dubai seem like they compare to the Middle East as California does to the rest of the United States.

There is no official timetable yet for opening Disney Abu Dhabi. But for now, the new park will mean hundreds of new jobs in Southern California, as Disney hires more Imagineers in Glendale to design and support the Yas Island project. That is one heck of a way to celebrate 70 years of Disney theme parks.

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