Could the Middle East’s first Disney resort be known as Emirates Disneyland?

Disney

Disney has registered the domain for Emirates Disneyland signalling that it may be considering this as the name for its upcoming theme park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Domain registration records show that emiratesdisneyland.com was registered by Disney Enterprises in California on May 6, one day before the new park was officially announced.

This author and my colleague are the only journalists worldwide who specialize in covering the theme park industry for national media and we have been doing this for nearly 25 years. Thanks to our network of contacts, we were tipped off about the Abu Dhabi park by an extremely senior source from outside the UAE and broke the news on social media the week before the announcement. This report previewed the deal two days before it was announced but what we didn’t know was the name of the park. There is good reason for this.

Even Disney’s press release didn’t mention what the new park would be called and it hasn’t been officially announced. The press release does however include a quote from Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger referring to “Disneyland Abu Dhabi” but 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 the final name had not yet been decided.

It should be noted that just because Disney has registered the domain that doesn’t mean it will be used. Indeed, Disney has also registered a number of other domains which could refer to names of the new park including disneylandyasisland.com and yasdisneyland.com. It has also taken over the disneylandabudhabi.com domain which was registered in April by a seemingly unconnected individual as this report revealed.

The most likely name would actually seem to be Disneyland Yas Island as all of the other theme parks there follow this naming convention as shown on its website.

It is also possible that Disney is preparing possible alternatives as the names of some of its theme parks have changed after they have opened. The most well-known example of this is Disney’s European outpost which began life in 1992 as Euro Disney Resort before changing to Euro Disneyland, then Disneyland Resort Paris and finally Disneyland Paris as it is known today. The two parks that sit inside the complex have different names so ‘Emirates Disneyland’ could refer to the resort itself even if its flagship theme park isn’t called that.

Nevertheless, it would make sense to use the Emirates name as the resort is likely to have an impact on the entire country, not just Abu Dhabi. The UAE will be only the fifth country in the world to have a Disney park and it will be the only one which is part of a resort containing rival theme park brands.

On Yas Island they are all run by government-backed Miral which has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading theme park operators. It now has one of its most important decisions to make because although Disney registers the domains, it is likely that the choice of name will be up to Miral. It has everything to play for.