Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya is to invest €6bn in three theme parks near Paris, in what French President Emmanuel Macron called the biggest development of its kind in France since Disneyland Paris, the French president announced on August 24.
The project, to be built at Cergy-Pontoise northwest of the capital, is expected to create 22,000 jobs and marks the most significant international move yet by the Saudi entertainment developer, taking a model conceived to keep Saudi leisure spending at home and exporting it into the European market. The announcement came during a visit to France by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman.
“With Saudi Arabia, we are making an unprecedented announcement,” Macron said in a post on X, describing the complex as “a new global destination. Here, in France,” and thanking Qiddiya and Saudi Arabia for their confidence in the country.
The development will include a major theme park inspired by the Japanese manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball, financed by Qiddiya as part of the developer’s growing international footprint. Macron tied the investment to his “Choose France” initiative, launched in 2018 to attract foreign investment, which the Élysée Palace says had facilitated more than 230 investment decisions worth nearly €87bn before its ninth edition in June 2026.
Macron drew a direct comparison with Disneyland Paris, which has drawn more than €13bn in investment since opening in 1992 and supports tens of thousands of jobs. “We’re not done surprising the world,” he said.
Qiddiya is a portfolio company of the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and a central plank of the kingdom’s push to build up its entertainment, sport and culture sectors under Vision 2030. Its flagship Qiddiya City development near Riyadh includes Six Flags Qiddiya City, the Aquarabia water park, a gaming and esports district and the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium.
Why it matters for the trade
For a decade the Gulf story has been inbound with Qiddiya not even open yet outside of Riyadh. Qiddiya crossing into France as an outbound investor signals that PIF’s entertainment vehicles now see themselves as global operators, not just as anchors for Vision 2030’s home market, and the trade should expect more Gulf-backed leisure assets to surface in European and Asian destinations rather than only in the Gulf itself.
For the European attractions sector, the arrival of a sovereign-backed developer with Qiddiya’s balance sheet reshapes the competitive map around Paris, already the continent’s dominant theme-park hub through Disneyland Paris and Parc Astérix.
A third major cluster at Cergy-Pontoise, anchored by globally recognised IP such as Dragon Ball, would widen the catchment’s pull for inbound tour operators, coach programmes and family-holiday packaging, while raising the stakes on hotel supply, transport links and multi-park itineraries across the Île-de-France. The job-creation and “Choose France” framing also underlines how leisure megaprojects are increasingly negotiated as investment-diplomacy, tying trade outcomes to bilateral politics.