Why the Middle East's government-owned theme park boom could reshape the industry—without Western operators in control
Universal is reportedly exploring plans for a theme park in Saudi Arabia, funded through a licensing arrangement backed by a government entity. If it moves forward, the project would place Universal alongside Disney, which recently announced a similar licensing deal in Abu Dhabi—one Disney says will be accretive from day one.
If anything, the surprise isn’t that Universal is pursuing this—it’s that it took this long.
Universal tried this before. In 2008, the company broke ground on Universal Studios Dubailand with private financing—only to see the project collapse when money evaporated during the financial crisis. What’s different now? Government backing eliminates that risk. The licensing model Disney pioneered means operators collect revenue from day one without capital outlay—perfect for Comcast as it diversifies away from eroding cable revenue, just as the Middle East diversifies away from oil. Both are betting that theme parks are the answer.
The Middle East Is Where the Action Is
The bigger question is whether the Middle East becomes the global theme park capital over the next 10-15 years. Six Flags Qiddiya opens this week, with the Dragon Ball Z park and water park projects progressing in the same area. Qiddiya is 590 miles from Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, where Disney is planning a new theme park, and which already hosts multiple theme parks (and is the site of the new Harry Potter Expansion).
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s tourism initiatives represent governments recognizing that entertainment infrastructure is a strategic priority as they diversify away from oil.
Business critics of the area say that the YAS Island parks were built for crowds that aren’t materializing, and that’s also the significant risk for the Qiddiya plans. Time will tell, and that’s the key. These projects are working on a different time scale. Particularly in the US, we’re so used to discussing ROI and measuring in quarters, but these projects are measured over decades. That genre of long-term structural investment is tough for public or private companies to execute on (see Six Flags).
Universal coming to the area completes the set, per se, bringing massive capital, Ips, and the largest theme park chains together in one region. Universal couldn’t afford to be the missing piece. The longer they stayed absent, the more it looked like a strategic failure rather than a strategic choice. Whether this news was leaked intentionally or not, it serves a purpose: signaling Universal isn’t conceding the fastest-growing attractions market to competitors.
A New Paradigm: Government-Owned Parks With No Competition
Orlando is the current theme park capital of the world, and we’re all familiar with the thriving tourism ecosystem it’s created, centered around the major players. Now imagine an Orlando where Disney World and Universal are both owned by the government—run by different government entities but ultimately controlled by the same sovereign power. All the competition would come from Tampa, a neighboring country. Feels strange, right?
The Middle East parks will be entirely government-owned. Within each destination—whether Yas Island or Qiddiya—traditional park-versus-park competition doesn’t exist the way it does in Orlando. Instead, the competition occurs at the national level: the UAE versus Saudi Arabia, each building tourism ecosystems to attract regional and international visitors. What does innovation look like when governments, not companies, are the competitive units? Is it more like the ‘house always winds’ mentality? What environment will a lack of competition create?
Are we witnessing the birth of the new theme park capital, built on a new set of rules – or will a lack of innovation and tourists plague the area? Are Disney and Comcast trading short-term gains for long-term failure by helping create a new tourism sector they don’t control? Time will tell.
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