New and significant military conflict has bean in the Middle East on Saturday, February 28, 2026. The United States and Israeli forces took action against Iran who retaliated with attacks on US facilities throughout the region. This included Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Several of these house major theme parks now popular with tourists including potentially your favorite theme park influencers from the United States. One of these is the brand new Six Flags Qiddiya City near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with its record breaking coasters like Falcon’s Flight. The targets are supposedly intended to only be military, but there are already reports of errant munitions damaging hotels and airports in the region with thousands of flights cancelled. There are obviously bigger geopolitical issues here that we won’t discuss and the loss of life of civilians and military members is the paramount concern, but it is a reminder of the potential concerns with international theme park travel.

The middle east has been an area of growing importance for the theme park industry. If you want to ride some of the record holding coasters in the world a trip to the region is essentially mandatory for roller coaster enthusiasts. Parks include the previously mentioned Six Flags Qiddiya City, but also Abu Dhabi’s theme park (located primarily on Yas Island) including Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, Yas Waterworld and SeaWorld. Dubai also has Motiongate, Legoland and Real Madrid World. There has been a significant uptick in US tourism of these sites as in many cases a trip there can be cheaper than a trip to Walt Disney World.

Theme parks are not the most important thing in the world, people are and people travel to theme parks. This is a reminder that an international trip to theme parks often comes with a small amount of increased risk as in many regions the chances of conflict are not zero as seen today in the middle east or with the travel disruptions and drug violence in Mexico last week after the killing of a cartel leader. It is important to remember though that there are risks anywhere as fights break out at local theme parks all the time too (unfortunately). If you do travel internationally be sure to do your homework, stay informed, check cancellation rules and potentially have some back-up plans should your travel be disrupted. The chances of anything happening to you on your theme park vacation are microscopic, but a few minutes of planning and thought about “what if” could be a big deal down the road.