Emirate Plans Disney-Style Theme Park

Gulf Arabs will soon have their own Disneyland--Islamic style.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi is in the final planning stages of a Disneyland-style entertainment park to be built on a spectacular man-made island.

The government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has spent millions of dollars in the last six years on dredging and stacking boulders to mold the Gulf’s first artificial island for the park that could cost up to $2 billion.

Mana Khalifa al Romaithi, director of services and communications at the emirate’s Public Works Department, said the next phase of the Lulu Island project will be to import foreign technical expertise and designs--as long as their blueprints sport an Arabic flourish.

“It will be not all like Disneyland, you’ll feel like you are in a different culture. It will be Islamic and it will be Arabic, the design will reflect our region and heritage,” he said.

“You’ll see it in the buildings, the arches, the rides, the exhibits and the films.”

Romaithi said a jury of European and American design consultants was invited to the emirate to judge scale models of five international companies bidding for the contract to design and build the Lulu Island project.

Sheik Zayed ibn Sultan al Nahayan, UAE president and ruler of Abu Dhabi, and the plan’s main financiers, will have the final say on the design, Romaithi said, declining to discuss costs or the names of the companies.

The UAE General Secretariat of Municipalities said in the September issue of its magazine that the cost will range between $1 billion and $2 billion.

The project has been on the drawing board since 1985, when huge walls of boulders were erected in the sea and the interior packed with sand. Workers dredged sand and built a 3-mile long rock breakwater.

The 1,050-acre island was completed in 1991. It lies about 600 yards from Abu Dhabi city’s spectacular beachfront promenade--lined with luxurious high-rise apartments and office towers.

But despite its potential to attract tourists, there have been some murmurs of opposition to the project.

Some UAE businessmen have said privately they oppose the idea of transforming the Gulf coast horizon into a view of flashing lights and amusement-park rides.

The project was postponed earlier this year after the Abu Dhabi government asked companies to resubmit their designs. The municipality report said it had been shelved for six months.

But Romaithi said the government is now ready to move ahead with the design selection but again declined to provide dates.