Visitors from the UK to Abu Dhabi’s theme parks surged by 40 per cent last year following the first advertising campaign for them in London which saw banners for Sea World, Warner Bros World and Ferrari World plastered on the walls of underground stations and at Canary Wharf.
It was part of a diversification plan to ensure Abu Dhabi isn’t overly reliant on any single market. “We saw 40 per cent growth from the UK,” says Mohamed Al Zaabi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s government-backed leisure operator Miral.
“We saw 44 per cent growth from India and 80 per cent growth from China. So that helps us with geopolitical macroeconomic changes.”
The parks in Abu Dhabi are the most-visited in the Middle East and are clustered on the man-made Yas Island. They are key to Abu Dhabi’s Vision 2030 strategy, which was implemented by the government in 2008.
Capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi’s vast fortune was built on fossil fuels but faced with declining reserves, the government decided to diversify its economy by investing heavily in leisure.
Theme parks are at the vanguard of this strategy as the colossal complexes have the capacity to welcome millions of people and attract tourists from afar. Yas Island’s draw is magnified by having multiple record-breakers, including Formula Rossa, which, until recently, was the world’s fastest roller coaster.
Major brands look to the Gulf
American operator Six Flags took its crown on New Year’s Eve when it opened a park in nearby Saudi Arabia with a roster of record-breaking rides. Disney’s arch-rival Universal Studios is also reportedly planning to open outposts in Saudi Arabia and India, which is only a short flight from the Middle East.
The UK is crucial to success in this skirmish as more of its tourists travel to Abu Dhabi’s theme parks than from any other country in Europe. The Middle East is its biggest overall market and Al Zaabi says that outside the region, “India is at the top, then China, and I would say the UK, Germany and Russia. We have also noticed that France is rising on the list.”
There were more than 38m visits to Yas Island in 2024, a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. This upward trend continued in 2025 as the destination had a record-breaking summer last year with a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in visits and an average occupancy rate of 85 per cent in its hotels.
It takes more than the wave of a magic wand to keep it on top. “I always say to my team, we are not competing with regional destinations, we are competing with global destinations,” says Al Zaabi.
“Customers’ behaviour has changed. Social media, the internet and the digital world have made them more informed about other destinations. They want to make their own decisions. Thirty years back, you told the customer what you sell, today they tell you what they want.
“You have to listen and that’s what we have been doing on Yas Island. We listen to the customers first and then we react.” Its latest additions should cast an even bigger spell on them.
A new House of Mouse
In May Disney announced it had selected Yas Island as the home of its seventh resort which will be run under licence by Miral in return for royalties, expected to come to between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the resort’s revenues.
Although it isn’t set to swing open its doors for at least five years, Miral announced it with huge adverts in Piccadilly Circus and on the cavernous BFI IMAX cinema on London’s South Bank. The same advert was prominently placed in some of the world’s busiest capitals including on one of the jumbotrons in New York City’s Times Square. There was good reason for this.
To further diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy, Disneyland will need to attract millions more guests so Miral will therefore have to target markets farther afield which explains why it is already advertising in New York and London. Ironically, that will put Miral in competition with some of Disney’s existing parks, including Disneyland Paris, so it has to improve on them.
Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger has confirmed that the “resort in Abu Dhabi will be the most advanced and interactive destination in our portfolio” with sources telling American news outlet The Wrap that it could attract as many as 32m guests in its first year – almost double the attendance of Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, currently the world’s most-visited theme park.
The higher the attendance, the higher the revenues and the higher the royalties. For Mickey, that really is a happy ending.