{"id":16345,"date":"2012-03-04T17:13:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T13:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=16345"},"modified":"2012-03-04T17:13:22","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T13:13:22","slug":"is-it-time-for-disneyland-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/is-it-time-for-disneyland-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Time for Disneyland Saudi Arabia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I was curious whether Disney had a presence in the Middle East.\u00a0 When I did a search for \u201cDisney Arabia\u201d I learned that there was a\u00a0Disney Arabia<\/a>\u00a0 television channel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I found it interesting that Disney has had a presence in\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0for more than 15 years with an emphasis on its consumer products.<\/p>\n

Disney Parks and Resorts are the number one vacation and recreation choice for families all around the world.\u00a0 Disney Hong Kong, Disney Tokyo and Disney Shanghai now have a solid presence in Asia.\u00a0 Disney Paris is the presence in Europe. Could there be a possibility for a Disney Arabia?\u00a0 Or better yet, a Disney KSA?<\/p>\n

On the positive side,\u00a0Matthew Grossman<\/a>\u00a0is the Disney VP of Corporate Communication for Europe, Middle East and Africa.\u00a0 He is based out of London.\u00a0 At least there is a focal point for Disney operations in the Middle East region.\u00a0 He\u2019d be the initial \u201cgo to\u201d person.<\/p>\n

Diego Lernier<\/a>\u00a0is the President of Disney Europe, Middle East and Africa.\u00a0 He is the one with the responsibility to seek out new opportunities for Disney.<\/p>\n

So why is there not a Disney Arabia?\u00a0 Or better yet, a Disney KSA?\u00a0 The GCC and the Saudi market in particular, is one of the most stable places to invest.\u00a0 It\u2019s no secret that Arabs are very family oriented and take great joy in making their children happy.\u00a0 While there are small recreational parks in Saudi Arabia there is nothing similar to a theme park like Disney.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is seeking to open and expand its tourism industry.\u00a0 The presence of a Disney KSA would bring tourists from across the GCC and probably Southeast Asia.\u00a0 Disney by the Sea in a city such as Jeddah would be a successful and highly profitable venture.<\/p>\n

Children from across the GCC are aware of Disney.\u00a0 When my stepchildren visited Abdullah and I while we were in the States they all wanted to go to Disney.\u00a0 Now, years later, they still talk about their Disney holiday with fond memories and joy.<\/p>\n

Why has Disney not moved on a viable and profitable market opportunity?<\/p>\n

If anyone wishes to contact Disney, the point of contacts within the Corporate Communications department are:<\/p>\n

Zenia Mucha<\/a>
\nCorporate Communications
\n(818) 560-5300<\/p>\n

Michelle Bergman
\n818-560-8231<\/p>\n

Matthew Grossman
\n44 (0) 20 8222 2023<\/p>\n

Maria Lavalle
\n54 11 5777 7078<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMERICAN BEDU: GCC residents and in particular Saudis are great fans of all things Disney. Will we see one of their parks here? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":16346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,173,90,482,10,5],"tags":[2009,1209,18343,9631,470,366,630,191,2144,1808,18275,11867,1410],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}