Disney is set to open its seventh theme park and resort in Abu Dhabi, marking its first location in the Middle East, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger revealed during an appearance on Good Morning America Wednesday (May 7) morning.
“I am excited for the UAE and Abu Dhabi. Bringing a Disneyland to a land in the world is, I think, a big deal and it makes a big statement and it’s just a great moment,” Iger said, referring to the upcoming plans as “the most technologically advanced theme park that we’ve ever built.”
“We’ve decided that we want to build a very modern Disneyland,” Iger added. “It will obviously incorporate a lot of our intellectual property and some of the typical stories that we tell in our theme parks.”
The new theme park will be located on Yas Island, which is estimated to be about 8,400 from Anaheim’s Disneyland, the first Disney park to have opened in 1955.
“You start thinking about what is possible, actually envisioning a castle rising up in this case from the sand and also being on the water,” Iger said. “We haven’t decided everything that will go into it but we do know it will be anchored by a castle,” Iger continued. “And again – the modernization that is Abu Dhabi – the castle will be the first real modern castle that we built.”
Iger referred to the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi as “a crossroads of the world,” which led to its selection.
“This is a hub in many respects but also, because it is located where it is, it’s accessible to so many different regions, places where we typically have only scratched the surface in terms of attendance to our parks,” Iger said.
Disney has publicly discussed potential plans for a new theme park since 2017, which Iger said were solidified after discovering excitement was already present in the region during his visit to UAE last year.
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