Has anything changed for Disney's plans in Abu Dhabi?
How has this week's war in the Middle East changed plans for a new Disney theme park and other attractions in the region?
It is way too early to answer that question. The United States has ordered its citizens to evacuate the region, in what might be the most cynical travel advisory ever issued by the U.S. (Seriously, telling people to use commercial flights to leave a region when all commercial air traffic is grounded?) But let's not forget that the attractions that have opened and will open in this region are not targeted primarily at American tourists.
Disney, Six Flags, Warner Bros. and SeaWorld have entered this market to appeal to the hundreds of millions of people who live in and travel to the Middle East each year. Those residents are not going anywhere, and it is likely that those tourists will be back once air travel resumes to full capacity.
Only a prolonged conflict that leads to a long-term reduction in air traffic will affect the region's tourism development plans. For now, consider this. Hurricanes strike Florida. Earthquakes hit California. Those natural disasters pause the flow the tourists and spending in those communities, but do not stop them.
This is a man-made disaster, spawned by the usual geopolitical suspects: leaders' needs for power, money and fossil fuels, with just enough religious and nationalistic dressing on top of that to distract their followers from the money, poll numbers and oil. Same as it ever was.
Yet there also are plenty of financial and political leaders in this region whose livelihood depends upon the return of calm from this chaos. At some point, their needs will be met, as they always are. And the flow of tourists and new expat residents - and the development to accommodate them - will resume.
Disney and its Abu Dhabi partner, Miral, have not announced any timeline for the development and opening of that park. But plenty of attraction development continues on Yas Island. Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is working on new attractions themed to Harry Potter and DC Comics, as detailed most recently here by our friends over at Forbes.
Abu Dhabi was set to host the first IAAPA Expo ever in the Middle East this month. IAAPA has said that it expects to provide an update on the Expo soon. (Full disclosure: I had plans to attend.) Even if IAAPA decides that it cannot proceed with its Expo as planned, I expect to see the announcements and deals that would have been completed there hit the news at some point after the current hostilities end. Again, so long as the Middle East remains a growing and affluent market, there will be attractions developed to serve it.
Yes, the current hostilities have destabilized the region. But they have destabilized the entire world, as well. Every time the U.S. messes around the Middle East, it suffers some blowback. Expect the same result in the future.
I take comfort in the resilience of people's need for joy. European theme parks Efteling and Europa-Park, for example, were developed in response to the conflicts that wrecked and divided so much of Europe in the middle of the 20th century. People are continuing to work and play in the Middle East even now. They will continue to do so in the future.
Disney's deal with Miral is easy money for Disney, with state-backed Miral committing to fund the design, construction and operation of the Yas Island Disney theme park. I can't imagine that anything short of a much greater disaster in the area would cause Disney enough PR pain to walk away from that. Signing Disney is a great achievement of national pride for the UAE. I cannot imagine that anything that would drive leaders there to walk away from this deal, either.
So, for now - on the theme park beat at least - even though things may have paused in the Middle East, they have not changed. Best and safe wishes to all our readers, friends and colleagues in the region.
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