Despite the comparisons, Abu Dhabi isn’t positioning itself as a direct rival to Orlando it’s aiming to be something more. The emirate sees its theme parks as part of a bigger portfolio of attractions, alongside cultural landmarks, luxury hotels, pristine beaches, and desert adventures.
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A 15-minute drive from Yas Island, Saadiyat Island is home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a franchised outpost of the famous Paris art museum, which welcomed 1.4 million visitors last year, 84% from abroad. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum are both under construction, adding to a cultural district that will be one of the region’s most concentrated hubs of art and heritage.
“Abu Dhabi’s unique appeal lies in the diversity of our tourism offering,” Al Geziry added. “For thrill-seekers, we have record-breaking roller coasters and dune bashing in the desert. For culture lovers, historic sites like Al Ain Oasis and institutions like the Saadiyat museums. And for luxury travelers, world-class dining, private island resorts, and high-end shopping.
“Where else can you start your day under the Louvre’s iconic rain-of-light dome and end it in the immersive, story-driven worlds of Warner Bros. World or Ferrari World?”
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Still, not everyone is convinced that Disney’s expansion into the Middle East is a sure bet.
“The region has seen its share of false starts,” says Dennis Speigel, founder of the International Theme Park Services consultancy, comparing it to neighboring Dubai’s patchy record with theme park expansion ambitions in the mid-2010s. “Several of them struggled for profitability in their first decade.”
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Spiegel believes Abu Dhabi is different. “Disney made a smart choice. The infrastructure, safety, and existing leisure developments create an ideal entry point,” he told CNN earlier this year. “It’s a much more controlled and calculated move.”
Under its Tourism Strategy 2030, Abu Dhabi aims to grow annual visitors from 24 million in 2023 to more than 39 million by the end of the decade. With Disneyland as a centerpiece, those targets may well be surpassed. The city’s population has already grown from 2.7 million in 2014 to more than 4.1 million today, a reflection of its rising profile as a regional hub.
Yas Island alone has been transformed in the space of a decade from a largely undeveloped stretch of sand to a self-contained resort destination, complete with golf courses, marinas, a mall, more than 160 restaurants, and a cluster of high-end hotels.
Orlando’s head start remains formidable it still offers multiple Disney and Universal parks, has decades of brand loyalty, and an infrastructure built to handle tens of millions of tourists annually.
But Abu Dhabi is catching up fast. Its combination of frictionless travel, year-round comfort, cutting-edge attractions, and a cultural scene that adds depth to the experience gives Abu Dhabi its own unique selling point, potentially offering a model for the next generation of theme park capital.
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The Great Lakes have the most shipwrecks per square mile among all bodies of water in the world, largely due to the high shipping traffic in the 19th century and the lake’s volatile weather. Researchers know about the wrecks because reporting any commercial ship that sails on the lakes is required; from the early 19th century to the 20th century, about 40,000 ships sailed the Great Lakes, Baillod said.
There are about 6,000 commercial vessels on the seabed of the Great Lakes, lost to storms or other issues. In Lake Michigan alone, there are over 200 shipwrecks waiting to be discovered, according to Baillod, who has created a database of these ships over the past three decades.
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Wrecks in the Great Lakes have been found since the 1960s, but in recent years the rate of these finds has accelerated greatly, in part due to media attention, clearer waters and better technology, Baillod said. Some wreck hunters and media outlets call this the golden age for shipwreck discoveries.
“There’s a lot more shipwreck awareness now on the Great Lakes, and people are looking down in the water at what’s on the bottom,” he added. Part of the reason it’s easier to see in the water is thanks to quagga mussels an invasive species that was introduced in the 1990s. The mollusks have filtered most of the lakes, turning them from their old greenish hue, which allowed for only a few feet of visibility, to clear blue. Now, the lakes have visibility of up to 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30.5 meters), Baillod explained.
“Tourism has popped up around paddle boarding and kayaking, and these shipwrecks are visible from the surface because the water is so clear,” he added.
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The wreckage of the Mary Rose at The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England.
A Tudor warship sank nearly 500 years ago. The bones of its crew reveal what life was like
And then there are advancements in technology. “Side-scan sonar used to cost $100,000 back in 1980,” he said. “The one we used to find this (shipwreck) was just over $10,000. They’ve really come down in price.”
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has a project in the works to map the bottom of the Great Lakes in high resolution by 2030. If the organization succeeds, all shipwrecks will be found, Baillod said.
In the meantime, Baillod said he hopes he and his team will continue to discover missing shipwrecks from his database in the coming years and bring along citizen scientists for the ride: “I keep looking, and I don’t doubt that we’ll keep finding.”
