Rumors of the possibility of a Disney Park coming to Egypt have been going around for quite some time and recently they have started back up again after Martouh Governor Alaa Abu Zeid signed an investment contract with the Entertainment World Company establish a Disneyland-style amusement park worth $3.3 billion.
The news comes from an Egypt Independent report on February 1st and it has caused some confusion. The reports are on multiple news outlets in Egypt and they have stirred up the rumors again, most likely because of the choice words “Disneyland-style amusement park.”
It started back in 2014 when the state-run news MENA agency reported “There are discussions going on between Disney International to build in Egypt its first Disney Park in the Middle East, similar to Disney France,” Ashraf Salman, Egypt’s investment minister, said.
At that time Disney flat out denied any plans for a new park in Egypt according to The Washington Post. “At Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, we continually look for ways to grow our business and as part of that process, we have conversations with many different entities,” a spokesperson for the company said in an e-mailed statement. “While Egypt is an attractive market, we have no plans for the region at this time.”
While that’s not a denial that they could have been in talks, there were not and still are no plans by the Walt Disney Company to build a park in the country. Well that was then and this is now and it looks like Egypt is moving forward without Disney in a joint US-Saudi Arabian investment project and making their own theme park which would be in the “style” of Disneyland, but not with the theme of disneyland.
The theme park will be built on an area of 5,080 acres in Sidi Heneish, Marsa Matrouh. The Local Development Minister Abu Baker Al-Gendy, Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr, and Chairperson of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones Mona Zobaa were present at the signing ceremony hosted by Abu Zeid and Lisa Marie Stephen, the Managing Director of Entertainment World in the Middle East and Africa, the report states.
According to Nasr, the park will be the biggest foreign investment project after the new investment law and its executive regulations. The project is expected to take up to ten years to complete and would generate around 40,000 new jobs. The first phase to be completed in around two years.
While Egypt may not be getting a Disney theme park, Saudi Arabia may actually be in the running to be the first in the middle east to be home to a Disney Park after a delegation of Saudi officials, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, met with Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger on Wednesday.
They discussed Disney’s future in the Saudi Kingdom and the meeting mainly focused on movies and entertainment, but the crown prince highlighted the massive opportunities which exist in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where a solid infrastructure and a massive demand for Disney products and services exist. While nothing specific was mentioned about a theme park, it seems like the crown prince was hinting that there is a market for it, but they are just talks at this point and nothing has been planned.
One thing is clear, the region is clearly making an effort to increase its entertainment industries and boost their tourism numbers.