Perhaps the ill-fated Middle Eastern project should be the symbol of the bubble-driven development in the theme park industry. Planned in 2008 to include multiple theme parks, including ones from Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, Legoland and even Six Flags, which hasn't built a new park in decades.
When the real estate/financial bubble burst, so did the project, and U.S. theme park companies began dropping out. But Dubailand's remaining backers are soldiering on, looking for new theme park partners.
The latest news has Dubailand again pining for Disney to come to its rescue. With no interest from the House of Mouse, the project's developer is looking for an alternative, too. "We need an entertainment anchor for the family, something like Disney but not Disney," the president of the development company said.
Dubai's not a destination that many - if any - Americans consider. But Dubai draws millions of sun-seeking Europeans south each year. The Ferrari World theme park recently opened in neighboring Abu Dhabi, so the area's not a complete bust for theme park projects. Perhaps some of our European visitors might like to comment on whether they have any hope for a theme park project in Dubai, and if so, if they'd be willing to plan a visit.
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That being said, the Middle East is still the biggest powder keg in the world and will be for the forseeable future. Theme parks put hundreds of millions (billions if you're Disney) into these places and the last thing they can realistically do is convince a board of directors that ANYPLACE in that part of the world is a safe place to invest overwhelming amounts of money.
Personally I think the whole middle east, theme park wise, is a no go for that type of investment. I'll give two examples: back in the early 70s Iran was considered a friendly US ally...that is until the Shah lost power and the Ayatollah showed up. In Egypt, which until recently was considered a safe and good place to vacation. Now with Mubarak gone, lord only knows who will take over. Will it be a pro west democracy or a bunch of fanatics. The point is we don't know. Up until last year Egypt's pyramids were a gold mine for the local economy with thousands of visitors a day. Now, the local vendors report only a trickle of people, maybe a hundred or so a day showing up. Can you imagine what a theme park operator would do if something similar happened to their operation (no DCA jokes, please)?
Nor do i think it's comparable to Iran. The population of the country is dominated by Westerners. i think only around 6 percent of people living in Dubai are nationals, so an uprising would be incredibly unlikely, especially considering the popularity of the ruling family, who are incredibly pro-Western.
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So, bearing that in mind, I don't see much of a future for the originally planned parks, aside from Universal where construction has already began, though not much has been done in the last few years.
Disney would be a huge catch for Tatweer, the developers of the project, because they could easily draw more tourists with one Disney theme park than they could with the mega-project that is the orignal Dubailand park.
Is there a market for a Disney park in Dubai? I'm not sure. Hong Kong, Tokyo and soon Shanghai Disney Parks all cater for the Asian market, whilst Walt Disney World and Disneyland cover North America and, crucially, Disneyland Paris serves the European market - where the large majority of the cities visitors come from.