In a galaxy near here

Star Wars could prove to be a huge tourism boost for the UAE, long after film crews have moved on.

As any sci-fi fan worth their salt knows, today is Star Wars day, a date commemorated for its similarity to the cult line “May the Force be with you”. Star Wars fans have more to celebrate than usual this year, with a new film in the works. UAE fans have even more, now that Abu Dhabi has been confirmed as the location for some of the movie’s scenes.

Film locations inevitably become tourist destinations for cult movies – witness the effect on New Zealand as the location for The Lord of the Rings – and Tunisia is still reaping the rewards of standing in for the planet Tattoine in the original Star Wars. Abu Dhabi could surely follow.

If the sets in the desert turn into fully realised locations and are kept in place after filming has wrapped, they will certainly become attractions in their own right and will deliver a significant boost to the desert economy and the hotels dotted around that part of the country. Ditto, of course, the capital itself. The Corniche was closed on Friday for, it has been suggested, the boy racers of the Fast and the Furious to film some additional scenes.

Fast cars by the ocean, space ships in the desert and a landscape of futuristic buildings being constructed in between. Tourists soon won’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to feel otherworldly.