Yas Island has transformed dramatically since Ferrari World was the first theme park to open on the island in 2010. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Attendance at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island theme park hub increased by 63% to a record 44 million visits over the ten years to 2025 driven by a string of new openings, including SeaWorld and Warner Bros. World, according to new data.
Ferrari World, the first theme park on the man-made island, only swung open its doors in 2010 and raced onto the agenda of thrill seekers all over the world thanks to Formula Rossa, a roller coaster with the world’s fastest launch. It was followed three years later by Yas Waterworld, a groundbreaking water park which mixes traditional slides and theme park rides. Yas Island’s world-class collection of parks has made it a titan of the industry and it isn’t stopping there as attractions themed to Disney and Harry Potter are on their way.
However, theme parks are only one component of the attractions on the island. It also has a marina, an arena, a mega mall with over 370 shops, deluxe hotels, beaches, a race circuit, CLYMB – the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall – and a golf course which hosts a round of the PGA European Tour. This diverse range of attractions casts a powerful spell.
In 2016, Yas Island attracted a total of 27 million visitors but that began to surge two years later with the opening of Warner Bros. World.
Just as Yas Island was getting into its stride, the pandemic hit but that didn’t slow down the destination’s growth. The WB Abu Dhabi – the world’s first Warner Bros. themed hotel – premiered there in 2021 as my colleague forecast in the Daily Telegraph. Two years after that, Yas Island made its biggest-ever splash with the opening of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi which became home to the world’s largest LED screen and the most cutting-edge theme park ride as this author reported.
The WB Abu Dhabi – the world’s first Warner Bros. themed hotel – opened on Yas Island in 2021.
MSM
Attendance swelled by a staggering 36.5% to 34 million in 2023 and this upward trend continued the following year when the total hit 38 million. It didn’t stop there.
In 2025 Yas Island had a record-breaking summer with a 15% year-on-year increase in visits and an average occupancy rate of 85% in its hotels. Guests came from far and wide with 31% growth from China, 86% from Russia and 47% from the United Kingdom, partly driven by Yas Island’s inaugural ad campaign in London as I reported in the City A.M. newspaper.
It drove the total attendance to 44 million in 2025 and such is the strength of Yas Island’s appeal that visitors continued to stream through its turnstiles this year despite the Middle East being in the grip of a war.
As this report explained, soon after the war began, Miral, the government-backed leisure operator which runs Yas Island, seized the moment and put annual park passes back on sale to boost local tourism and compensate for international airlines canceling flights to the region.
Yas Waterworld reached capacity when it opened its new slide tower in April.
MSM
The masterstroke led to Yas Island’s parks being packed with guests during the peak of the conflict. Indeed, they were so busy that when Yas Waterworld launched a new slide tower in April it reached capacity by early afternoon on opening day. During a long weekend at the end of the following month, attendance at the parks and CLYMB was 32% higher than last year with the on-site hotels hitting 92% occupancy at an average daily rate of $347.99 (AED1,278).
Even at the height of summer, when the mercury soared north of 110 degrees, Yas Island’s hotels were still packed. Indeed, Miral’s trailblazing chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi recently told CNN that occupancy across its properties averaged at 85% in August with the WB Abu Dhabi reaching 92%.
As I have reported, Miral’s magic formula involves cutting no corners and ensuring that its next attraction is better than its predecessors. Thanks to this strategy, Warner Bros. World became the first theme park in the Middle East to appear on the Global Attractions Attendance report from the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) when 1.4 million visitors streamed through its turnstiles in 2023. According to the latest data from the TEA, the park’s attendance rose to 1.6 million in 2024 putting it second only to SeaWorld which hit 1.8 million.
The parks act as global beacons for the island which attracts residents to its properties and, in turn, shoppers to the mall and corporations to the business park there. This all generates a new source of revenue for Abu Dhabi and diversifies its economy away from fossil fuels which built its fortune but are beginning to run out. It explains why theme parks are the crown jewel of Abu Dhabi’s diversification strategy which aims to attract 39.3 million visitors and create 178,000 jobs by the end of 2030. With Miral’s relentless pursuit of perfection it appears to have found the magic formula to achieve this aim.
Additional reporting by Chris Sylt
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