Following the announcement that The Walt Disney Company would be building a new theme park in Abu Dhabi, Disney CEO Bob Iger jumped on an earnings call to discuss the 2025 Q2 results. We’ve covered those results in an earlier article. In a Q&A portion of the earnings call, Iger was asked to speak to how Disney chose the location and Miral, the partner for the Disneyland Abu Dhabi project. Here’s what he had to say.
Iger: New Theme Park Is Huge Endorsement of Abu Dhabi, No Better Place to Build
In answering a question about location, Iger had a glowing review of not only Abu Dhabi, but of Miral – the financing, construction, and operational partner for the theme park. As a reminder, Disneyland Abu Dhabi is essentially a licensing deal for Disney, who will have full creative control, but simply collect royalties without any requirement for capital. For more on the deal, check out our earlier article.
Iger started his response by noting that Disney studied the region very carefully, before deciding on Yas Island and Miral to build in Abu Dhabi. Iger said that “building a theme park in a location is a huge endorsement of the location”, and said that the location will be able to sustain a Disney theme park.
Iger then noted that the Middle East made a ton of sense for a Disney theme park due to the availability of “hundreds of millions” of income-qualified people. Basically, there are a lot of people in the region who Disney determined could afford a trip to one of Disney’s existing six theme park complexes. Iger said that the best way to reach those people was for Disney to bring its product to them and build a theme park in the Middle East.
Iger then went on to say that Disney has found that 500 million income-qualified people live within a 4-hour trip of the planned Disneyland Abu Dhabi.
It’s very likely that money drove the conversation here, with Disney only expected to bring creativity to the table, and not capital. Iger even noted that “obviously capital was not an issue” when dealing with Abu Dhabi’s Miral.
Beyond capital, Iger said that Miral “demonstrated a number of things that were really important to us”. Firstly, Iger said that Miral showed “a real appreciation of quality and innovation, and appreciation of the arts and creativity”. Iger liked that Miral had a huge commitment to new technology.
Iger said that Disney also took a look at what Miral has already built such as the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and that Disney was impressed.
Iger said that of everywhere that Disney was looking to build, Abu Dhabi was the perfect place for Disney. Iger said that “of all the places that we could choose from, there did not seem to be any place that is better than this”.
Here’s the full quote from Iger about how Disney choose Abu Dhabi for this massive theme park project.
Then on the Abu Dhabi question, which is a good question Steven, we did study the region very carefully, and we know we had many opportunities.
Obviously, building a theme park in a location is a huge endorsement of the location, speaks volumes of the ability of that location to sustain a Disney theme park.
I should start with an overview of the Middle East, it was very obvious to us that there were many people, basically hundreds of millions in the world that were income qualified where a trip to one of our six locations was pretty lengthy in nature and expensive. We felt the best way to obviously reach those people is to bring our product to them.
Interestingly enough, as an aside, when we decided to build a cruise ship and put it in Singapore, which will not launch until the end of the year, we put it on till just a few months ago, in the first quarter sold out in a matter of days, as a for instance. There is clearly a desire to engage, for consumers to engage with Disney in a wide region. This was enough from our other locations we do not view this as in any way cannibalistic to places where they operate.
When we look at Abu Dhabi and the UAE, I mentioned the statistics earlier today, we talk about it being a crossroads of the world. 500 million income-qualified people live within four hours, 125 million people will come through Dubai and Abu Dhabi this year alone. Abu Dhabi estimates that 39 million tourists will visit Abu Dhabi by 2030. That says a lot. Then as we started to dig deeper into Abu Dhabi specifically, and engage with our partners, obviously capital was not an issue.
In addition to that, they have demonstrated a number of things that were really important to us. Number one, a real appreciation of quality and innovation, and appreciation of the arts and creativity. And a huge commitment to new technology. We were impressed with all of that. We also looked at what they have already built, between the Guggenheim, which is going up, and incredible other experiences, the architecture here as well. Everywhere we looked we were convinced that this was a perfect place for us.
And then our partners, we immediately bonded with them in many respects. Spoke the same language, basically, we both have a real appreciation of our history and legacy, but moving forward and being forward-thinking and innovating is also part of our… Basically our DNA. It was very very clear to us that of all the places that we could choose from, there did not seem to be any place that is better than this. One of the reasons it came together so quickly is how convinced we became particularly after engaging with our partners that this was the right choice.
For more details about the Disneyland Abu Dhabi project, check out the original announcement below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
