Second Place 2025

By Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid

It has emerged that Disney has registered the domain for Disney World Abu Dhabi, raising the possibility that it is planning multiple theme parks for its upcoming resort in the Middle East following the format of its namesake in Orlando, Florida.

The Abu Dhabi resort was announced almost a year ago with a dazzling drone and fireworks show on the Yas Island leisure destination where it is due to be located. There was good reason for the razzmatazz as it was the first new park Disney had announced in more than a decade and it will also be its first outpost in the Middle East.

However, aside from a press release and two pieces of cryptic concept art, few concrete details were disclosed at the announcement. Even the name of the resort was kept under wraps.

Disney's press release didn't mention what it would be called and the name hasn't been officially announced. The press release did, however, include a quote from Disney's then-CEO Bob Iger referring to "Disneyland Abu Dhabi", although the project page on the Yas Island website describes it as "Disney Abu Dhabi".

Both 'Disneyland' and 'Disney' are used in the official names of the media giant's other resorts, so both are possibilities. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Abu Dhabi government's release referred in general terms to "the Disney Theme Park Resort project", keeping the door open for a more specific name to be chosen in future.

It is one of the most fundamental elements in the park's intellectual property portfolio, which will be licensed by Disney to Miral, the leisure operator backed by the Abu Dhabi government that will develop, build and run the resort.

Miral already operates four other parks on Yas Island – SeaWorld, Warner Bros. World, Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld. The web address for each park reflects its name and analysis of domain registrations reveals that Disney's resort could follow this pattern.

Yas Island

The domain registry shows that on 6 May 2025, one day before the park was announced, Disney's licensing division – Disney Enterprises, Inc. – registered the address disneyworldabudhabi.com, giving a possible insight into its plans.

Just because Disney has registered the domain, it doesn't mean that it will use it as the name of the resort or the park. Indeed, although it has never been reported that Disney has registered disneyworldabudhabi.com, it has come to light that its other registrations include emiratesdisneyland.com, disneylandyasisland.com and yasdisneyland.com.

There are also indications that Disney's resort in Abu Dhabi could feature more than one park like its Floridian counterpart, which is home to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disneys Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Although the location of the Abu Dhabi park has not been officially announced, it is well-known that it will be on a stretch of beach in the north of Yas Island. Google Maps shows that this site is 479 acres, which is more than three times larger than the footprint of Disneyland in California and more than six times larger than its neighbouring Disney California Adventure park.

Disney's first Middle East park

It is understood that Disney-themed hotels will also be built, but there is no need for them to be next to the park. At Walt Disney World in Orlando, the official hotels are scattered around the 25,000 acre site and are connected to the parks by a network of buses, boats and monorails.

There is plenty of space elsewhere on Yas Island to build the Disney hotels and there is also a desire to do so. As blooloop recently revealed, Yas Island plans to build 1,000 new hotel rooms over the next five years in the run up to the opening of its Disney park.

Perhaps alluding to the resort extending beyond one park, when it was announced, Miral's chairman, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, described it as "a whole new world of imagination".

The more parks that are built on Yas Island, the more powerful a spell they cast on Abu Dhabi itself because they are at the heart of the city's plan to diversify its economy. Abu Dhabi's vast fortune was built on fossil fuels but as its reserves began to dwindle, it has invested heavily in its leisure infrastructure in order to drive tourism and create a new revenue stream from it.

Disney World

Theme parks are core to this strategy as they draw tourists from afar, and the colossal complexes have the capacity to welcome millions of visitors. As more parks are built, more people will visit, driving local spending and diversifying Abu Dhabi's economy.

This long-term vision explains why Miral has doubled down on its plans for the Disney resort despite the Middle East being engulfed in a war that erupted unexpectedly at the end of February.

Late last month, Miral's chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi travelled to London to meet Tasia Filippatos, the new president of Disney's international parks. Alongside a photo of them, Al Zaabi posted a message on LinkedIn saying that "as we continue to advance our collaboration on Disney Abu Dhabi on Yas Island, we at Miral are excited about the opportunities ahead to create a truly iconic destination".

As Forbes recently reported, Filippatos responded saying, "thank you for the kind words, Mohamed. It was a pleasure meeting you in London – I greatly enjoyed the exchange of ideas."

With both sides in alignment, it seems to be a fairytale partnership.

Images courtesy of Disney and Miral