His story appeared in our June 2025 issue, featuring the Top 100 Listed Companies in the Middle East.
Known for its year round sunshine, world class luxury hotels, and enviable safety record, tourists have long been flocking to the UAE’s shores in growing numbers. In 2019, pre pandemic, Dubai alone welcomed 16.7 million tourists from over 233 countries according to Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, making it the fourth most visited destination globally. Dubai’s neighbour and the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi, welcomed a record breaking 11.35 million visitors in 2019, according to its Department of Culture and Tourism, a 10.5% increase compared to 2018. Post pandemic, Dubai’s visitor numbers have more than recovered, with 18.7 million tourists in 2024. Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, recorded 5.8 million hotel guests, a 6% increase compared to 2023, with international overnight visitors reaching 3.2 million, a 28% year on year increase. International visits to Yas Island’s theme parks also grew by 40%, led by key markets, including China with a more than 81% rise, India with 44%, and the UK with more than 40%.
Still, tourist numbers to the UAE are set to boom even more in the next five years, with new upcoming destinations including the UAE’s first casino, the Wynn Al Marjan Island resort in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, while Dubai is laying the foundations for a new sprawling resort by MGM Resorts International, including a Bellagio hotel, both due to open in 2027.
However, the major coup of the year came from Abu Dhabi in May 2025, when Disney announced that its seventh international theme park resort will be opening on Yas Island, in partnership with local leisure and entertainment company, the Miral Group, which will develop and build the resort.
While details of exactly when the new park will open remain under wraps, Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, Group CEO of Miral, is clearly keen to get started. “We’re all excited; if I could build it tomorrow, I would do it,” he smiles. “We’re at the early designing and visioning stages right now.” Some reports have indicated that the park could be open in the early 2030s, with Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s Experiences theme park segment, telling Reuters that “a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build.”
Miral is well versed in creating and managing awe inspiring destinations. The company’s portfolio so far includes Ferrari World, which was opened in 2010, and the 1.65 million square foot Warner Bros World, currently the second largest indoor theme park in the world, which launched in 2018. More recent additions include the 18,000 capacity Etihad Arena, which opened its doors in 2020, and SeaWorld Yas Island, which opened in 2023, featuring over 68,000 marine animals in one of the world’s largest aquariums. In 2022, the group unveiled its new brand identity, with the value of its projects under construction worth more than $3.5 billion.
“It’s good to remind ourselves that Yas Island was an empty canvas in 2007, only 18 years back. To achieve all this is a miracle.”
All of the company’s attractions are either completely indoor or a hybrid of indoor and outdoor elements. This will also be the case for Disney’s theme park in Abu Dhabi. “We know that indoor theme parks are very successful here. We know from our experience that an outdoor theme park would never work. You’ve seen Ferrari World, you’ve seen Warner Bros World, we have done it with SeaWorld, which by the way was a mission impossible,” says Al Zaabi. “We know for sure that Disney will be hybrid, it will be indoor and outdoor. At this stage, it is too early to decide, but I reckon a good percentage of it will be indoor.”
One thing that he is sure of is the regional twist that will also be incorporated. “Everything we do here, we do differently. It will be a merger of very contemporary architecture with cutting edge technology to be the most advanced Disney theme park resort in the world. It will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati,” he explains.
The Group CEO remains tight lipped about how much it might cost to build the world’s most technologically advanced cutting edge Disney theme park, but reports estimate that the first ever Disneyland in California cost $17 million to complete in 1955, the Tokyo park cost around $1.4 billion to build in 1983, Disneyland Paris cost $5 billion in 1992, and the Shanghai resort set Disney back $5.5 billion in 2016. Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi reportedly cost around $1 billion to build, it’s fair to presume that the cost of Disneyland Abu Dhabi will dwarf that.
However, the potential benefits are expected to far outweigh the costs. The new resort will be fully developed, built, and operated by Miral, while Disney’s Imagineers will lead creative design. For Miral and Abu Dhabi, having a Disney theme park on home turf opens up the emirate even more to millions of international tourists and investors. “The announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi is a major win for the UAE’s tourism strategy and economic diversification efforts. From an investment standpoint, it positions Abu Dhabi as a premier global destination capable of attracting world class brands, which will likely catalyse additional international entertainment and hospitality investments in the region,” says Josh Gilbert, Market Analyst at eToro. “Having a Disney resort in the Middle East extends Disney’s reach to a new geography, potentially boosting Disney’s consumer products and media business in the region as well. It could stimulate Disney Plus subscriptions, merchandise sales, and film popularity in MENA as the park builds a local fan base.”
For Al Zaabi, the benefits spread even wider. “I think the impact of Disney will be regional. I believe that Disney will be an anchor. I envision the whole GCC benefiting from this project,” he insists. As tourists travel between MENA countries, they will also spend more, with the ATM Travel Trends Report 2025 recently predicting that by 2030, total tourism spend in the Middle East will hit nearly $350 billion, 50% higher than in 2024. First and foremost, though, the theme park will be a sizable step towards Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism’s 2030 plans to boost annual visits to over 39 million, increase tourism’s contribution to GDP to $24.5 billion, and create 178,000 more jobs in the sector in the next five years. Yas Island recorded over 38 million visits in 2024, a 10% increase compared to 2023.
It’s a journey that Al Zaabi has been on for the last ten years. Having started his career as a computer engineer in the military for six years, he went on to join Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties PJSC, where he first met Miral’s current chairman, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, in 2008. Miral was established by the Abu Dhabi government in 2011, led by Al Mubarak, and Al Zaabi joined four years later. At that time, their goal was to help diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy in non oil industries and elevate the emirate to become one of the top tourism destinations in the world, announcing the vision for Yas Island at the end of 2015. “We wanted to be one of the top 10 family destinations in the world,” recalls Al Zaabi. “To achieve that, we decided to attract more projects, more IPs.”
When he started, the company had just finalised the design and started construction of Warner Bros World. This was followed by CLYMB Yas Island Abu Dhabi, The WB Abu Dhabi Curio Collection by Hilton, the Yas Bay masterplan, and the blueprint for Etihad Arena. By the end of 2016, they were in discussions with SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment to develop SeaWorld Yas Island Abu Dhabi, and the Yas SeaWorld Research and Rescue Center.
At the same time, the team recognised the need to overhaul its backend infrastructure. The Group CEO remembers a trip to China in 2016 to visit business partners, where they received feedback about the lack of a central booking system at the time.
Once home, Miral set to work building a new central booking system that could offer customers a way to book customisable, tailored holidays. “I’m very proud today of the platform that we built. More than 90,000 room nights last year came from our website only. That website is as good as booking.com for Yas Island,” says Al Zaabi. Today, visitors from around the world can use the website to pre plan their trips to Yas Island, buy tickets, and book hotel rooms with hospitality brands both on the island and across the emirate.
Miral also established its Miral Destinations subsidiary to act as an engine for sales and marketing. Today, the Miral Group has three subsidiaries, Miral Destinations, Miral Experiences, and Yas Asset Management, with Miral Experiences operating and managing theme parks and experiences, and Yas Asset Management managing Yas Bay, Yas Marina, and The Fountains.
In 2018, inspiration hit for Miral’s most recent opening, teamLab Phenomena. The huge, interactive, multi sensory art experience opened in the Cultural District on Al Saadiyat Island in April 2025, but it was during a trip to Tokyo in 2018 that Al Mubarak first discovered the concept when visiting teamLab Planets and teamLab Borderless in the city. “He came back and said, guys, I want to bring this concept here,” recalls Al Zaabi. “Interestingly, the first idea was to build a smart nursery pre school facility, to let children be more curious about science and technology. But as we got to the design stage, we tweaked and tweaked. We are very pleased with the outcome.” The Abu Dhabi museum is teamLab’s twenty sixth permanent exhibition, but it’s the first building to have been designed and built specifically for teamLab technology, with installations inspired by the balance between nature, the manufactured world, and the environment.
While inspiration for attractions can hit at any time and come from anywhere, the process to bring Disney to Yas Island seems to have moved fairly fast. According to the Group CEO, the Disney team first visited Abu Dhabi in 2024 and was impressed with what it saw. “We knew Disney was coming to this region, and we knew Disney was looking for the right partner,” he reveals. “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.”
With six Disney theme parks already scattered around the US, Europe, and the Far East, opening its latest in the Middle East opens Disney up to a diverse market of more than 500 million potential visitors within a four hour flight, according to reports. For Abu Dhabi and Yas Island, the benefits are already being seen in the real estate sector, less than a month after the announcement was made. “International investors, especially from the US, have shown the strongest immediate response. Regional interest is also growing, and institutional players are starting to assess the broader opportunities, particularly in hospitality and rental markets,” says Louis Harding, CEO of Betterhomes. “Disneyland is a globally iconic brand. Its presence will significantly elevate the island’s international profile and have a far greater long term impact on both tourism and real estate demand than any previous development.”
Still, the Miral Group has other developments in mind. Al Zaabi says the team studies 25 to 28 ideas every year, with the National History Museum in Saadiyat’s Cultural District, which is being developed by the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Miral, due to open later in 2025, according to DCT. As well as this, the expansion of Yas Waterworld is set to open this summer, introducing 12 new rides and slides, and Warner Bros World is due to expand in the coming years with a new Gotham City experience and a Harry Potter themed land. Ferrari World will also be adding a new signature ride, aiming to achieve several records.
It’s an eye watering to do list, but Al Zaabi remains focused. “It’s good to remind ourselves that Yas Island was an empty canvas in 2007, only 18 years back. To achieve all this is a miracle,” he smiles. “And now, we have Disney.”
