{"id":56210,"date":"2025-05-07T14:50:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210"},"modified":"2025-05-07T14:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:50:58","slug":"disney-plans-first-middle-east-theme-park-in-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210","title":{"rendered":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=145e22f0-60af-48a9-97ac-81a20e4adc9c\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Walt Disney is planning a theme park in Abu Dhabi, its first in the Middle East, in partnership with state-backed Miral Group, as it targets increasingly affluent consumers in the region. <\/p>\n<p>Bob Iger, Disney chief executive, said the Abu Dhabi park would be within reach of \u201chundreds of millions of\u00a0people\u201d with disposable income who lived too far to easily reach its other parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best way to reach those people was to bring our product to them,\u201d Iger said. \u201cIt is distant enough from our other locations so that we don\u2019t view this to be in any way\u00a0cannibalistic to the places where we already operate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The news came as Disney shares surged close to 10 per cent after the group boosted its outlook for the financial year. It credited price increases for its streaming services and strong attendance at its US theme parks for pushing earnings above Wall Street\u2019s expectations last quarter. <\/p>\n<p>Disney\u00a0will design and operate the new park, its seventh, and will be paid royalties\u00a0by Miral, an Abu Dhabi state-owned developer that will also provide all the capital. <\/p>\n<p>The park will be located\u00a0on Abu Dhabi\u2019s Yas Island. Miral has a mandate to develop the previously desert district, which Disney says will draw travellers from across the Middle East and Africa, India, Asia and Europe. <\/p>\n<p>For many potential Disney park visitors, it is much simpler to obtain a visa from the United Arab Emirates than Europe or the US, where several of Disney\u2019s resorts are located. <\/p>\n<p>Oil-rich Abu Dhabi wants to attract tourists and already has Sea World and Warner Bros theme parks, which also belong to Miral, along with the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.\u00a0It will be Disney\u2019s first new park since Shanghai Disneyland opened in 2016. <\/p>\n<p>Iger in 2023 outlined a 10-year, $60bn investment in its experiences business, which will also include major expansions in its parks in Florida and California. No opening date for the new park has been announced.<\/p>\n<p>Disney\u00a0on Wednesday forecast a strong performance for the rest of its financial year across its entertainment, sports and theme park business. But the company also warned that \u201cuncertainty remains in the operating environment\u201d as questions swirl in the market\u00a0about the impact of US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff policies.<\/p>\n<p>Disney boosted several of its guidance metrics, with Iger saying: \u201cOverall, we remain optimistic about the direction of the company and outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group swung to net income of $3.28bn in its second quarter from a loss of $20mn a year earlier, beating Wall Street expectations for $1.88bn, as revenues rose 7 per cent to $23.6bn. Adjusted earnings of $1.45 a share were up 20 per cent from 12 months ago and topped analysts\u2019 forecasts for $1.20 a share.<\/p>\n<p>Despite recent concerns about belt-tightening by US consumers, Disney\u2019s theme parks in Florida and California performed well, with revenue rising 9 per cent\u00a0from a year earlier. Guest spending at its US\u00a0parks rose, while its cruise business grew following the launch of the Disney Treasure cruise ship at the start of 2025. <\/p>\n<p>In its international markets, attendance fell at Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland.<\/p>\n<p>Price increases at Disney+ and Hulu\u00a0pushed the company\u2019s streaming revenue up 8 per cent from a year earlier, though the company said it expected only \u201cmodest increases\u201d in subscribers in the current quarter. Combined, the two services have about 180mn subscribers.<\/p>\n<p>Disney shares had fallen more than 17 per cent since January prior to Wednesday\u2019s bounce. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/145e22f0-60af-48a9-97ac-81a20e4adc9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Walt Disney is planning a theme park in Abu Dhabi, its first in the Middle East, in partnership with state-backed Miral Group, as it targets increasingly affluent consumers in the region. Bob Iger, Disney chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2F53d21592-f9f2-4ccd-9491-adc68cf624f6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\"},\"headline\":\"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\"},\"wordCount\":621,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\",\"name\":\"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds","og_description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme","og_url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210","og_site_name":"Prosfunds","article_published_time":"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2F53d21592-f9f2-4ccd-9491-adc68cf624f6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6"},"headline":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi","datePublished":"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210"},"wordCount":621,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210","name":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi | Prosfunds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-07T14:50:36+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-07T14:50:58+00:00","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Walt Disney is planning a theme","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56210#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Disney plans first Middle East theme park in Abu Dhabi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56212,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56210\/revisions\/56212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}