Latest news with #Yas Island
UAE Moments
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- UAE Moments
Disneyland Abu Dhabi Likely to Rise in North Yas
Disneyland Abu Dhabi could soon call North Yas its home — specifically a waterfront plot near Fahid Bridge, according to real estate expert Ben Crompton. While nothing's confirmed, it's one of the last premium beachfront locations left on Yas Island. Opening Timeline and Current Impact The mega attraction is expected to open mid-2030s, but so far, it hasn't driven up nightly rates or occupancy for short-term rentals like Airbnb. Experts say that could change as the opening date gets closer. Property Market Already Heating Up Even without premium pricing for theme park views, Yas Island property prices have jumped up to 20% over the past year. Demand spiked right after the May announcement, with villas outperforming apartments and Aldar projects leading gains. Short-Term Rentals in Abu Dhabi Short-term lets are regulated by the Department of Culture & Tourism, which requires a licence. Crompton says the process is simple, and professional operators are available to help. Hot Properties Right Now
Khaleej Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Disneyland Abu Dhabi expected to rise in North Yas, says expert
Disneyland Abu Dhabi is most likely to be built in North Yas, close to the Fahid Bridge, on one of the last remaining waterfront plots on the island, a leading real estate expert has said, while property prices on Yas Island have jumped by up to 20 per cent over the past year. Ben Crompton, Managing Partner at Crompton Partners, told Khaleej Times that while buyers are not yet paying a premium for a view of the upcoming theme park, demand for Yas Island homes surged immediately after the project was announced in May. 'The Disney theme park will most likely open in North Yas, close to the Fahid Bridge, but it hasn't been confirmed yet. We know it will be on the water and so this area is one of the few beach locations left on the popular island,' he said. The attraction, expected to open in the mid-2030s, is not yet influencing nightly rates or occupancy levels for short-term lets, such as Airbnb, in the area. Crompton said this market is likely to accelerate as the handover date approaches, with projects like Water's Edge already proving popular among short-term rental operators. Short-term lets in Abu Dhabi are regulated by the Department of Culture & Tourism, which requires property owners to obtain a licence. 'It is relatively straightforward and there are plenty of professional operators who can assist,' Crompton said. Currently, Water's Edge, Yas Acres, especially its new Magnolias and Dahlias projects, and Yas Golf Collection are attracting strong off-plan interest. Villas have outperformed apartments in the past year, with Aldar projects delivering the highest gains. 'In the last 12 months most projects on Yas Island saw 20 per cent returns. Villas did better than apartments, and Aldar projects did better than other developers,' he noted.
Forbes
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Disney Park Operator Unveils 15 Year Masterplan
One Disney theme park operator is already planning for 2040 (Photo by) Building blockbuster theme parks isn't the work of a moment. Typically spanning several hundred acres, design alone takes up to two years followed by as many as six years for construction. Bearing this in mind, it's essential for operators to think ahead which is why one of them is already planning what to do in 2040. In May, Disney's chief executive Bob Iger dropped the bombshell announcement that its next theme park will open on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was the latest step in a strategy which Yas Island put in place 15 years ago with the opening of the first-ever Ferrari themed park right next to a race track which hosts the season-ending Formula One Grand Prix. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi soon raced onto the radar of theme park fans as its 19 attractions included Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster. The park's growth quickly accelerated and it now has 43 attractions including a unique cross between a simulator and a roller coaster as this report explained. Attendance increased in line with this expansion and within just five years of opening, the park attracted one million visitors annually. In 2013 it was joined by Yas Waterworld, a water park which combines traditional slides with theme park rides. The following year, Yas Island broke new ground by opening a mega mall which now has 370 shops. Connected to Ferrari World, Yas Mall really is a whole new world as there are usually few independent stores and restaurants within walking distance of theme parks so guests are forced to shop and eat in high-priced on-site establishments. Instead of featuring glitzy gold encrusted eateries, as you might expect to find in the Middle East, Yas Mall is packed with American chains such as Dickey's Barbecue Pit, P.F. Chang's, Texas Roadhouse and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. It even has a outlet of See's Candies, a candy store founded in Los Angeles in 1921. The shops are no different as they include Columbia clothing, Hollister, Foot Locker, Toys 'R' Us and, of course, Disney as its first store in the UAE is in Yas Mall. There are also branches of hardware store Ace and Pottery Barn to cater for the hundreds of houses and apartments that have sprung up on the island since the mall opened. Many of the people who live there work on Yas Island and not just in the theme park sector. A UFC demonstration taking place at Abu Dhabi's Yas Mall (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty ... More Images) That's because Yas Island is also home to offices dedicated to the media industry with a new business park currently under construction. The F1 track weaves around a marina with yet more restaurants whilst others opened in a new waterfront district in 2021. The highlight of that area is an arena which hosted the UFC's Whittaker vs. de Ridder event on Saturday and in October the NBA's New York Knicks will play three-time champions the Philadelphia 76ers there. Just a few minutes walk away is the Yas Links 18-hole golf course where a round of the PGA European Tour takes place. With its cream-colored walls, corrugated terracotta tiles, exposed wooden rafters and wrought iron chandeliers, the Spanish-style clubhouse closely resembles the summerhouse at Walt Disney World's high-end Golden Oak residential district. Fittingly, the Yas Links clubhouse was the site of a spectacular drone show which celebrated the announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi and set a new record as this report explained. Praise poured in from the local region, known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and much farther afield. Olivier Garaïalde, chief executive of vacation resort operator Center Parcs, described the announcement as "such an impressive milestone done by Yas Island and Abu Dhabi" while Thomas Hecart, the supremely talented vice president of communication and public affairs at Disneyland Paris posted a statement on social media from Iger saying that the new park will blend 'contemporary architecture with cutting-edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways.' It will be the fifth park on Yas Island as Warner Bros. World opened in 2018 to great acclaim followed by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi five years later. The marine life park made a splash thanks to a one-of-a-kind ride, described here, which is set inside a sphere lined with high-definition LED screens. That's not all. Connected to Yas Mall is CLYMB, an angular building which contains the world's widest flight chamber and the tallest indoor climbing wall, whilst visitors looking for more relaxing recreation can head to a sandy white beach on Yas Island. Its hotels haven't been left out and in 2018 my colleague revealed in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that Yas Island was planning the world's first Warner Bros. themed hotel which opened in 2021 and features Art Deco-inspired rooms. The vast array of attractions on Yas Island has one of the most popular destinations in the Middle East and its attendance holds its own against the best in the business. My colleague and I have been analyzing industry attendance for nearly 25 years as we are the only journalists worldwide who specialize in writing about the business of theme parks for national media. We have been covering it since the opening of the Walt Disney Studios park in Paris in 2002 and, as this archive shows, we have written for more than 30 leading outlets including the BBC, The Times of London, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, The Independent and the London Evening Standard. In 2012 we revealed that Disney would take control of its outpost in Paris and five years later, after the takeover was complete, we broke the news that Disney would invest $2.1 billion in the French resort which is exactly what it did in 2018. Soon afterwards came our next exclusive that the the entertainment district at Disneyland Paris would be renovated and in 2022 it was finally officially announced. In December last year we began research for another exclusive. This time we analyzed the latest attendance data for Yas Island which showed that it recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023, a rise of 38% compared to 2022. Although the announcement initially referred to 'visits', it proceeded to describe them as 'visitors' when it broke the data down as it stated that "theme parks and CLYMB at Yas Island recorded an increase of 83 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022. Visitor numbers from the GCC grew by 125 per cent compared to the previous year." Yas Island recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023 (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images) It actually makes perfect sense to use the two terms interchangeably. The 34 million visits includes guests at the theme parks as well as anyone traveling to the island to visit the other facilities, such as the mall. Although they may seem to be incomparable, the only practical difference between them is the length of time they spend there. Yas Island is positioned as a resort with services such as shopping and dining in addition to its leisure attractions. Naturally some people will spend less time at the resort than others depending on what they are there for but this doesn't mean they aren't visitors there. Similarly, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) annual ranking of the world's most-visited theme parks does not state that guests have to spend a minimum amount of time in them to be classed as visitors and there is good reason for this. Many parks don't require guests to scan their tickets to pass through the exit gates so the operators have no way of knowing how long they have been there. Therefore, if the TEA required visitors to be in the parks for a minimum length of time many operators wouldn't be able to provide it. As with the visits to Yas Island, some people may stay in a park for half an hour whereas some may stay all day. To see how it compared with the attendance at Yas Island, I added up the 2023 TEA visitor numbers for Disneyland Park and the neighboring Disney California Adventure which together form the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. They came to 27.3 million people which was far eclipsed by the 34 million attendance at Yas Island. This doesn't include anyone who visits the 23 shops and 26 restaurants at the on-site Downtown Disney district in Anaheim but there is no indication that they move the needle significantly. This is clear from the fact that Anaheim itself welcomed a total of 25.8 million visitors in 2023 which is lower than Yas Island's tally and even lower than the attendance of the two Disney parks as they also include local guests. Exceeding the Disneyland Resort's attendance seemed to be a major milestone for Abu Dhabi but there didn't appear to be significant excitement about it which made this author think it could because talks were underway between the two parties. That was then confirmed by an extremely senior contact outside the UAE but I waited until three days after the deal had been signed before breaking the news on social media and then forecasting the announcement here. My forecast that opening a park in Abu Dhabi was "the biggest deal Bob Iger has yet to do at Disney" was met with scepticism from fans. Disney Tourist Blog said "I'll eat my words here if this gets announced with detailed aerial concept art." Likewise, Laughing Place described the prediction that Disney would open a park in Abu Dhabi as a "plausible impossible" before it suddenly removed its report ahead of the announcement suggesting that it had been given the same nod in advance that I got. The announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi in May came as a complete surprise to many in the industry The news about the new park still caught industry watchers off guard. On the morning of the announcement, my colleague tipped off The Sun's Lisa Minot, one of Britain's most seasoned travel writers, who responded with surprise saying "Disney are opening a new park in Abu Dhabi?" The announcement had been kept firmly under wraps thanks to a smart strategy from public relations firm Weber Shandwick and Miral, the expert attraction operator which runs the parks on Yas Island. Instead of mentioning Disney, Weber and Miral invited media to the announcement on the understanding that it would be a showcase of the "vision for the next five years" of Yas Island. Cleverly, this was in line with the opening window for the new park which Disney parks chief Josh D'Amaro gave to Reuters and The Wrap later reported. Over the past 15 years, Miral has cemented itself as the world's leading theme park operator outside Disney and Universal Studios. Bringing Disney to Yas Island has been seen as the culmination of its plans but in fact it is far from it. In an interview with this author, Miral's visionary chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi, revealed what is to come on Yas Island over the next 15 years. "We have planned for the coming 15 years, I would say, adding more attractions, more theme parks, more hotels, more rooms and we will keep monitoring the demand. We will keep monitoring the visitation and based on that, we add experiences. Not only that, we also improve experiences. 'An example is Ferrari. When we opened Ferrari, it was only 19 rides and attractions. Today we have 43 and we're still adding. We have plans to add, at least one attraction every one or two years on Yas Island in the coming 10 years, at least in our existing theme parks. Combine that with the new expansion, new theme parks and we are busy for the coming 15 years.' A Harry Potter land is due to open in the next few years along with several new rides at Warner Bros. World and a new coaster at Ferrari World which will set four new records. "If you want to create a global destination, you can't stop," says Al Zaabi. 'I always say to my team, we are not competing with regional destinations, we are competing with global destinations.' It reflects comments that Miral's supremely skilled chairman Mohamed Al Mubarak gave to CNN. "Are we going to be done after Disney? No. We are always going to find ways to bring in more people," he explained. In a recent interview with the Middle East edition of Forbes, Al Zaabi added that Miral studies 25 to 28 ideas every year. "Whenever you design any theme park, you always keep provision for expansion," he told me in 2023. Expansion isn't just limited to the parks. According to leading leisure industry construction tracking website Themeparx, Yas Island is developing an outlet of Topgolf, a cross between a driving range and an entertainment center. Topgolf combines dining, arcade games and a driving range with integrated games themed to movies. More housing is also on the way with the Yas Canal development adjacent to the island currently under construction. There is no shortage of space. Two years ago, Al Zaabi told me that "I would say 60% [of Yas Island is developed already]. Still 40 to go." As this report revealed, Disneyland Abu Dhabi will take up a good deal of that land and could even be the Mouse's biggest-ever park. Alternatively, multiple Disney parks could be built there which could be why Al Zaabi said "more theme parks" are coming to Yas Island. Perhaps alluding to Walt Disney World in Orlando, which is home to four theme parks and two water parks, Al Mubarak said in May that 'what we are creating with Disney in Abu Dhabi is a whole new world of imagination.' The most likely candidate for a second gate would be Disney World's science-themed Epcot park. Its avant-garde architecture would perfectly complement Abu Dhabi's futuristic skyline and, handily, it has an abundance of large indoor pavilions which would help guests beat the heat. It also bears a striking resemblance to Dubai's Expo 2020 site which attracted 24 million visitors in just six months. If those numbers were matched pro rata in Abu Dhabi, it could triple Yas Island's attendance which would certainly make the 15 years time well spent.
Forbes
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Disneyland Abu Dhabi Could Be Disney's Largest Theme Park
Disneyland Abu Dhabi has the potential to become Disney's biggest theme park Theme park announcements usually give fans the most important details about upcoming attractions such as when they will open, what they are called and where they will be located. The announcement that a Disney park will be built in Abu Dhabi is an exception. When Disney made the announcement in May it only distributed two pieces of extremely eye-catching but obscure concept art along with a press release containing precious few details. Like a classic fairytale, it kept fans guessing by raising more questions than answers. The biggest question on everyone's lips was when the park will open. On the day of the announcement, Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney's Experiences theme park division, told Reuters that a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build. On the same day, Disney's chief executive Bob Iger was interviewed by CNBC about the development of its theme parks and said "it typically takes us between 18 months and two years to design and fully develop and approximately five years to build." In contrast, just a few hours later Disney's publicity team told this author that "we have not been giving an estimated opening date" for the park. As this report revealed, the details on the invitation to the Disneyland Abu Dhabi announcement said that it would showcase the "vision for the next five years" of Yas Island, the entertainment destination where the park will be built. This suggested that the earliest it could swing open its doors is 2030, one year ahead of a new park in Britain being developed by Disney's arch rival Universal Studios. This reflected D'Amaro's timeline though Disney's public relations agency was quick to point out that the promise of an announcement about the vision for the next five years of Yas Island was simply a way of inviting media "without mentioning Disney" in order to keep the project under wraps. Even the official name of the park has yet to be revealed. Disney's media site links to fact sheets about its parks with each one showing its official name. In contrast, the tab for its upcoming outpost is simply marked 'Abu Dhabi'. It goes through to the announcement press release which includes a quote from Iger referring to "Disneyland Abu Dhabi" whereas the page about the park on the Yas Island website describes it as "Disney Abu Dhabi". Both 'Disneyland' and 'Disney' are used in the official names of the Mouse's other resorts so both are possibilities. Perhaps mindful of this, the Abu Dhabi government's release refers in general terms to "the Disney Theme Park Resort project" which further suggests that an official naming announcement is still to come. Surprisingly, internet records show that a seemingly unconnected individual registered the domain back in April whereas Disney registered and on May 6, the day before the official announcement. There is good reason why this was done so late. Unlike the majority of Disney's resorts, it won't own or operate the one in Abu Dhabi. Instead, it will be controlled by Miral, comfortably the world's leading dedicated theme park management company. Miral will pay licensing fees and royalties to Disney in return for the right to run the park and use its characters in it. They are in safe hands. Yas Island's current attractions include the Ferrari World theme park (Photo by Beata ... More Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Miral manages a collection of four parks on Yas Island and they are widely renowned for being the best in the world outside Disney and Universal. It began working its magic in 2010 with the opening of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. The park is home to the world's fastest roller coaster and the latest generation of ride from the company behind many of the most immersive attractions in Disney and Universal parks as this report explained. Ferrari World was followed in 2013 with Yas Waterworld, a water park awash with innovative features including a suspended roller coaster which weaves between the slides and a flooding 3D theater outlined in this report. Five years later, Warner Bros. World made its debut and later became the first theme park in the Middle East to appear on the Global Attractions Attendance report with 1.8 million visitors streaming through its turnstiles in 2023 as this author reported in local newspaper The Khaleej Times. Miral's latest park, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, also launched in 2023 and immediately made a splash with a first-of-its-kind ride described in detail here. The park aces every other SeaWorld and blows the Living Seas pavilion at Walt Disney World in Orlando out of the water. Iger liked what he saw so much that it only took him a matter of months to decide to entrust Disney's brand to Miral. SeaWorld opened on Yas Island in 2023 He told CNBC that he first started considering expanding in the Middle East in 2017 or 2018 but according to Miral's chief executive, Mohamed Al Zaabi, the Disney team only made its first visit to Abu Dhabi in 2024. "For some of them, it was their first time ever to visit this region, and they were saying they could not believe it. That was their reaction," he said in an interview with local title Forbes Middle East. In the CNBC interview, Iger added that he had visited Abu Dhabi three times in the past nine months culminating in the deal with Miral which was signed on April 29 as Al Zaabi revealed on Instagram. It left such a short amount of time to hit the announcement deadline of May 7 that the Miral team had to get to work on the unveiling event before pen had been put to paper. Rafae Ali, Miral's head of brand marketing, events and activations revealed that he and his team only had 14 days to deliver the Disney announcement celebration event which is an extraordinary feat given how elaborate it was as this author reported. When the park will open and what it will be called aren't the only questions which were left unanswered by the announcement. There's also the matter of exactly where it will be located on Yas Island. All Disney and Miral disclosed is that it would be a waterfront park and this was reflected in the concept art which showed the park's gleaming crystalline castle standing right next to the sea. "We'll be able to pull water in and play with it in a completely new and unique way," explained D'Amaro without saying exactly where the park will be located. However, this soon became clear thanks to some detective work by Themeparx, the leading source of attraction construction photos. It noted that the site of the announcement has been described as the future location of the park. The website correlated the buildings in the background of the announcement photos with ones on Google Maps and concluded that it was on the beach in the north of Yas Island. This happens to be the largest area of clear land on the coast of the island so it would make sense for the new park to be located there. There is more than enough space for it to have a happy ending. In the wake of the Themeparx post, a number of other outlets began reporting on the likely location of the new park. They included TheWrap which recently wrote that although "Miral and Disney haven't officially announced how big the park will be, there is a 300-acre parcel of land waiting to be developed on the island. As pointed out by someone working on the project, if that 300-acre parcel is indeed used, this would make it the smallest Disney theme park in the world, just a few acres less than Hong Kong. "It constrains what they can do," an individual who has been shown plans told TheWrap." It is unclear if the outlet was referring to the north Yas site or another one but if it is the former, it seems that it didn't cross reference its information with a map. Drawing a boundary around the north Yas site on Google Maps reveals that it isn't 300 acres but 1.94 square kilometers or 479 acres as can be seen below. That's not all. The reported site of Disneyland on Yas Island is around 479 acres Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be the only Disney park located in a resort which is also home to outposts of rival operators like SeaWorld and Warner Bros. The resort is Yas Island and the north beach site isn't the only area of available space on it. Indeed, two years ago, Al Zaabi told this author that "I would say 60% [of Yas Island is developed already]. Still 40 to go." Accordingly, unlike the majority of Disney's resorts, its themed hotels and dining and entertainment district don't have to be located right next to the park. One of the few exceptions is Walt Disney World where the Disney Springs shopping and dining district is around a 15-minute drive from Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park which, in turn, is also around 15 minutes away from the futuristic Contemporary, the tropical Polynesian and the turn-of-the-century Grand Floridian hotels. If Disneyland Abu Dhabi follows this model then the north beach site could be used exclusively for the theme park which could make it one of the biggest in the world. As the list below shows, measuring the area on Google Maps reveals that each of Disney's existing theme parks should comfortably fit into the north Yas site with more than 100 acres to spare. The size of Disney's theme parks The only possible exception is Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando as it isn't possible to distinguish whether some of the backstage land is unused or is a grazing area for animals. Animal Kingdom's area comes to around 340 acres but according to Disney, it spans more than 500. It isn't clear if that includes car parking spaces, bus stops and other areas outside the berm of the park which could be located elsewhere on Yas Island. Disney also says that its Magic Kingdom in Orlando could fit in the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride in Animal Kingdom which is perfectly possible as the former is 155 acres and appears to be around half the size of the latter park. The areas were all calculated by drawing around the perimeter of the park, including backstage buildings but excluding car parks which could be located elsewhere on Yas Island. Accordingly, although the overall resort in Hong Kong (including three hotels) is around 310 acres, the theme park itself is only 150 acres. It is important to note that just because there is enough space on Yas Island to build Disney's biggest park, that doesn't mean to say this is what Miral will do as its size has not yet been revealed. Miral could of course build multiple parks on the land which is three times bigger than Tokyo DisneySea, widely considered to be the world's most immersive and engrossing theme park. Likewise, it could also build a small park on the site but it has much more reason to do the opposite. When Warner Bros. World opened it earned the accolade of being the world's largest indoor theme park and it wasn't just to boast. Miral is backed by the Abu Dhabi government which is using the vast resources it amassed from oil to build a leisure infrastructure and diversify its economy due to dwindling fossil fuel reserves. In April last year Abu Dhabi approved new plans to boost visitor numbers to 39.3 million by 2030 in order to increase the amount that travel and tourism contributes to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the value of all of the goods and services it produces. Non-oil GDP is expected to rise from $13.3 billion in 2023 to $24.5 billion in 2030 and theme parks are at the vanguard of this expansion as they are magnets for tourists. Warner Bros. World opened with the accolade of world's biggest indoor theme park (Photo credit ... More GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images) Ensuring that Warner Bros. World was the world's largest indoor theme park drove publicity and made the park more desirable which attracted more tourists. Similarly, the better the parks are, the more tourists they attract which is why Miral's attractions are immaculate. The Abu Dhabi government has even deeper pockets than movie studios do so this is a magic formula to create the best of the best attractions without any need to cut corners. Cutting corners defeats the object of the theme parks for the government as if guests aren't happy with the experience, they might not come back to the city. The bigger the brand, the more tourists the park is likely to attract and the farther they are prepared to travel to get there. Although Disney is facing stiff competition from Universal, it still dominates the theme park industry which makes it a dream ticket for Miral. The only hurdle is Disney's home-grown competition. Abu Dhabi is in a sweet spot with one-third of the world's population located within a four-hour flight. It is also part of the largest global airline hub in the world, with 120 million passengers traveling through Abu Dhabi and nearby Dubai each year. The closest Disney park is currently in Paris which is a seven hour flight away giving Disneyland Abu Dhabi a catchment area with a huge untapped audience. However, Abu Dhabi's ambitions are greater than that. It aims to be the world's leading theme park destination and in order to take that crown it will have to attract guests from far and wide which will put its Disney outpost in competition with all of the others. To tempt tourists to Abu Dhabi instead, its Disney park will have to be better than the rest which explains why Iger made the bold claim that it will be "the most technologically advanced theme park that we've ever built." It could also be why it might end up being the biggest.
