Major tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi are continuing to welcome visitors – despite similar theme parks in Dubai remaining closed amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Theme parks Warner Bros. World, SeaWorld and Ferrari World are all open this week, with high-speed thrill rides and rollercoasters operating largely as normal, albeit without the usual crowds.
And the city’s most famous art gallery – Louvre Abu Dhabi, which sits on Saadiyat Island and is a sister museum to the original museum in Paris, has also kept to its usual opening hours.
British tourist Beth Middleton, who visited Warner Bros. World, which spans 153,000 square metres and has just announced it’s set to build the world’s biggest Harry Potter-themed land, yesterday said the indoor attraction was near empty.
Posting on the Facebook group Abu Dhabi Expats today, Middleton responded to a question about whether the city’s theme parks were still open, writing: ‘Yes they are open 10-5 and very quiet! I was at Warner Bros yesterday and had a great day.’
The UAE capital’s biggest theme parks, including Ferrari World, remain open to visitors this week – but it’s a different story in Dubai, with many of the biggest attractions shut
Another expat, Joanne Mcmullan, suggested it was a similar story at motor-racing themed park, Ferrari World, writing: ‘I just walked past Ferrari and people are riding the rollercoasters.’
On the Ferrari World website, the park hours are listed as 10am until 5pm until March 19 when they will extend to 10am to 8pm.
Over in Dubai, however, it’s a very different story with many of the biggest attractions in the UAE’s most popular tourist city still firmly closed.
The hugely popular Arabian-themed Wild Wadi Waterpark is closed until Friday March 6 and is advising visitors to check its official website before planning to visit.
Dubai Global village, a vast outdoor celebration of world cultures, which has 3,500 shops, hasn’t opened since Saturday.
Legoland Dubai is also closed until Friday ‘as a precautionary measure following official guidance’.
On March 1, the US and Israel launched a co-ordinated attack on Iran in which the country’s supreme leader was killed.
Indoor theme park Warner Bros. World has also remained open despite Iranian missile strikes on the UAE in recent days
Iran has responded by launching attacks on Israel and US-allied Gulf states, including Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, plunging the Middle East into a warzone.
Brit Hollie Hill, from Lincoln, told BBC Radio Humberside earlier this week that her family’s dream holiday in Abu Dhabi had been left in tatters.
She said her family, including her husband, three children and mother and mother-in-law, had been ‘having the time of our lives’ until Iranian missiles began firing on Saturday.
Describing the sound of loud bangs as ‘absolutely terrifying’, she said the family had received messages to their phones alerting them to the threat of missiles in Abu Dhabi, as Iran responded to Israel and US bombardments.
Major hubs in the region, including Dubai Airport (pictured), have been in partial lockdown since the first strikes began on Saturday
As travel chaos continues to take hold across the Middle East, many Brits – both at home and those stranded in the region.
It is unclear exactly when flights are set to resume.
However, some airlines, including British Airways, are starting to operate flights from places like Oman.
And aviation analytics firm Cirium anticipates cancellations will continue for at least a week. It will be both country and airline specific.
Many airlines have ruled out the possibility of any flights being scheduled until at least Thursday, the Guardian reported.
According to Travel Risk Management membership community The Trip Group, Syrian airspace will be closed until at least March 8.
In Iraq, the nationwide airspace closure is extended until March 7.
Meanwhile, for the Gulf states, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait have partially or fully closed airspace.
Anton Radchenko, aviation expert and founder at AirAdvisor, tells the Daily Mail: ‘If there’s no further escalation, I would expect a meaningful ramp-up over the next several days on key Gulf routes.
‘But a full return to normal like reliable daily frequencies, minimal rerouting, normal connection banks through major hubs, typically takes longer because airlines need to reposition aircraft and crews, clear backlogs, and rebuild missed rotations.
‘Even after the first flights restart, disruption can echo globally for a week as networks re-balance.’
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