Niles: Is this the first in a new wave of theme park failures?

Is a Dubai theme park’s closure this month a one-off, or the first sign of a new round of failures in the global attractions industry?

Dubai Parks and Resorts this month announced the permanent closure of Bollywood Parks Dubai, one of the three parks that opened at that resort in late 2016. Themed to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai, Bollywood Parks offered wonderful decorative touches, as well as a fun live-action stunt show and media-based motion-base and flying theater shows, with a new GCI wooden coaster seemingly ready to open soon.

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At first glance, Dubai ought to be a prime market for theme park development. UK-based research company Euromonitor ranked Dubai as the second-most visited city in the world last year, trailing only Paris. On paper, Bollywood also looks like a can’t-miss theme for a park. Movies long have provided the most compelling IP for themed attractions, and Bollywood films are wildly popular around the world. Put those together and a Bollywood-themed park in Dubai should have be an easy winner, right?

The late Disney Legend Harrison “Buzz” Price set an enduring standard for the industry by creating a model for feasibility that has helped parks around the world endure through business cycles that shutter many other companies. Yet Buzz’s system works because it demands that business leaders look deeper than top-level tourism numbers.

Set 40 miles from the Dubai’s main airport, Dubai Parks and Resorts stood far from other tourist attractions in the city. Unlike rival, air-conditioned attractions, Bollywood Parks was an outdoor theme park, leaving visitors baking in the Middle East’s searing heat for much of the year.

Perhaps investors thought that the park’s intended audience from South Asia would not mind the sun and the heat. But India is not a market where millions of people grew up with theme parks, unlike in the United States or Europe. And visitors to the United Arab Emirates from the West would rather go to indoor, air-conditioned parks with Hollywood themes.