The Walt Disney Company has revealed plans for a new theme park, the first in 15 years, signaling its expansion into the Middle East with a resort destination in Abu Dhabi.

Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be Disney’s seventh resort globally, as announced by the company on Wednesday, just ahead of its second-quarter earnings discussion.

Disney’s theme parks have been a significant source of income, accounting for 59 percent of its operating revenues in the 2024 fiscal year amid increasing competition in the streaming industry.

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And while US parks attendance decreased modestly last year, Disney reported Wednesday morning that domestic park attendance rose again, and revenue surged in the first quarter.

Although the company sees potential in its international resorts, where there's been more growth in attendance and guest spending, China has been a pain point amid the trade war: park attendance in Shanghai and Hong Kong fell, and international park sales tumbled in the first quarter as a result.

Miral, an Abu Dhabi company, will fully develop, build and operate the resort with Disney "imagineers" leading creative design and operational oversight. With a potential opening in the early 2030s, the initial project plan includes one theme park and an unknown number of hotels.

"Every time we open a new experience or a theme park … it's really important not just to take a theme park that might exist somewhere else and plop it into the ground in that new area that we would be going into," Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, told CNN in an exclusive interview with CNN's Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi.

Each park needs to reflect, in its design, its food and more, each specific location, he added.

"And so here in, in Abu Dhabi, we want the same thing."

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A whole new world

Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports have ambitious plans, with their vision as a pair of world-leading airports connecting a third of the world's population within a four-hour flight. That includes the 1.4 billion people living in India, many of whom would be able to travel a shorter distance to Abu Dhabi than to Disney's parks in Shanghai or Hong Kong.

D'Amaro said a potential 500 million people in the region have the means to visit a Disney theme park. That easy access, coupled with the country's future-oriented development, factored into Disney's decision.

"There was no question that for our seventh resort, this is where it was going to be," D'Amaro said.

Disney's resort will be located on Yas Island, where Miral has developed other resorts including SeaWorld YAS Island Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, and Warner Bros World, built under licence by CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery.

Yas Island is within a 20-minute drive of downtown Abu Dhabi and a 50-minute drive from Dubai. It is home to several existing theme parks, a golf course, marina, waterfront and mall, with 165 eateries across the island.

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Like a living 'Tomorrowland'

Disney says this new venture will be its most technologically advanced park, blending with the city of Abu Dhabi's future-oriented aesthetic.

While every Disney resort is anchored with a castle park, this castle will be different than fairytale-style landmarks. The artist rendering of the castle provided by Disney shows a spiralling, crystal-like structure towering above the rest of the park.

The property will also be the first Disney resort to sit directly on a waterfront (the Tokyo Disney Resort was built on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, but the water is only seen beyond park walls, not accessible by guests).

The company is also ready to take advantage of its recent investments in immersive gaming.

For example, D'Amaro said, Disney could use Unreal Engine, a developer tool used in many Disney films to create renderings, to also pull that imagery into theme park attractions.

"So that the real-time translation of stories from film, from game, to theme park, it's right there for our guests to enjoy. So we're very, very bullish on this space, and I think for this part, particularly given how tech-forward it's going to be, we have a huge opportunity."

Park wars

Disney hasn't announced a new theme park or resort since its 2010 Shanghai Disneyland news.

The Abu Dhabi announcement comes one month after Universal said it would build its seventh resort, this time in the United Kingdom, and just weeks before Universal opens Epic Universe in Central Florida, the first major opening in 26 years for the country's biggest hub of theme parks.

Disney dismissed concerns that new competition would hurt foot traffic at Walt Disney World.

"Anytime something opens up in Central Florida, we get more tourists coming in," D'Amaro said on CNBC Wednesday morning.

"You're not going to go to you're not going to come into Central Florida and not go visit Star Wars. … We feel that we're going to benefit from that."

Disneyland Abu Dhabi has been under discussion for about a decade, D'Amaro told CNN. Disney's theme parks hosted more than 140 million guests globally in 2023, the most of any amusement or theme park operator in the world. That includes more than 17 million annual visitors each at Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland Park in California, the two most-visited theme parks on Earth.

Domestic theme park attendance softened last year, as Americans criticised big price increases or started to scale back travel spending in an uncertain economy. International parks had been outperforming their domestic counterparts. But the reversal in fortunes in the first quarter proves adding strategic locations around the world can help Disney balance out fluctuations in the global economy.

"Even with consumer confidence somewhat down and some issues in terms of the economy, people still see a Disney theme park experience as really special," Disney CEO Bob Iger said on CNBC on Wednesday.

"They're just incredibly resilient."

When asked about a fifth park in Florida, D'Amaro cited aggressive expansion projects within the existing four parks at Walt Disney World without mentioning a new park.

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