CMU School of Drama


Monday, April 10, 2017

Are Dubai Theme Parks Already In Trouble?

Theme Park University: Let’s take a moment and ask ourselves the question: how many theme parks can Dubai and Abu Dabi possibly sustain? Surely I’m not the only one who thinks that the announcements for Six Flags Dubai, IMG World of Legends and the upcoming Warner Brothers park might be saturating the market a bit too fast?

2 comments:

Madeleine Wester said...

What I found most interesting about this article was it's discussion of which regions and people attend theme parks. I had always imagined that theme parks get most of their visitors from around the world or country, however it is usually the opposite. I realized that most of my friends in California have grown up visiting Disneyland yearly or even monthly due to it's close proximity. Understanding this, it makes sense that some of Dubai's theme parks are doing so poorly. I do agree that theme parks should be spaced apart and not constructed too quickly or close. Perhaps if som many theme parks had been built in the same area and time in Dubai they would have larger attendance rates. What was also interesting about this article is the fact that Orlando is the only place where it can be fully sustained by non-regional visitors. Maybe some more research can be done into this in order to improve the visitor attendance in Dubai?

Chris Calder said...

Last this year I remember reading an article that talked about the massive explosion of themed entertainment in this area. It is interesting to hear that they are running into problems after being open for such a short time. I think the article’s analysis is correct in saying that theme parks have a tendency to grow very quickly and not have the ability to get the client base that they expect. That being said I do think that this market does have potential and as the area begins to develop it will begin to see the numbers they were expecting. At the end of the day their goals did seem very ambitious from the start but I do think as time goes on the investment that was put in will find its way back into the corporate pocket. I look forward to seeing what comes of this area and whether or not this huge project actually pays off.