Dubai’s tourism offer is increasingly built around reasons to visit as much as places to stay. Fernando Eiroa is responsible for many of those reasons. As chief executive of Dubai Holding Entertainment, he oversees a portfolio that includes Dubai Parks and Resorts, Ain Dubai, The Green Planet Dubai, Coca-Cola Arena, Global Village and The View Palm Jumeirah.
Eiroa took the role in 2021 after a career spent inside large-scale leisure businesses. He served as chief executive of Palace Entertainment in the United States and later led Parques Reunidos, one of the world’s largest operators of theme parks, water parks, aquariums and zoological attractions. At Parques Reunidos, he guided the business through an initial public offering and oversaw more than 60 parks across 14 countries.
That career gave him experience of both individual attraction performance and public-company accountability. Palace Entertainment exposed him to a geographically distributed American portfolio where weather, season passes and local marketing can determine results. At Parques Reunidos, the IPO required a clearer investment case, more formal reporting and decisions about where refurbishment or new content could produce the best return across dozens of assets.
Eiroa has also served in governance roles connected to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, universities and the Parques Reunidos Foundation. Those positions widened his perspective beyond ticket sales to safety standards, education, workforce and the social role of leisure venues. In Dubai, that matters because several assets are not only tourist attractions. They are part of resident life and the city’s year-round cultural calendar.
That experience matters because attractions operate differently from hotels. Demand is highly sensitive to weather, school calendars, pricing and the quality of new content. Safety, maintenance and queue management are fundamental, while a single successful ride or event can alter attendance patterns across an entire season.
Dubai Holding Entertainment gives Eiroa a diversified platform. Global Village welcomed 10.5 million visitors during its 2024 to 2025 season, demonstrating the strength of an attraction that combines food, retail, performance and cultural pavilions. Coca-Cola Arena supports Dubai’s concert and live-event calendar. The Green Planet and The View create shorter urban experiences, while Dubai Parks and Resorts serves families seeking a full day or overnight stay.
The portfolio’s power lies in cross-promotion and programming. Visitors may arrive for a concert, add an observation experience and extend their stay for a theme park. Residents provide a repeat audience that helps reduce dependence on international arrivals. Eiroa can use data across the group to understand which products appeal to different segments and how pricing or bundles influence behaviour.
Innovation must remain visible. In October 2025, the group transformed Riverland into The World of Riverland and introduced T-REX Glamping, a premium overnight dinosaur experience at Dubai Parks and Resorts. The concept turned an attraction into accommodation and demonstrated how entertainment can create new revenue without relying solely on admission tickets.
The challenge is continual renewal. Attractions can age quickly, particularly in a city where new experiences enter the market constantly. Capital investment must be directed towards content that generates additional visits rather than novelty alone. Operational standards must also remain consistent across assets with very different audiences and technical requirements.
Eiroa’s wider industry roles, including positions connected to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, have given him a global view of safety, technology and consumer trends. He brings that perspective to a city using entertainment to increase length of stay and appeal to families year-round.
His contribution is the management of entertainment as an ecosystem rather than a collection of venues. Dubai’s hotels and airlines create capacity, but attractions convert that capacity into experiences and spending. Eiroa’s task is to keep giving visitors and residents a reason to choose what happens next.
