Saudi Arabia hopes to tap into the growing regional amusement park industry with a new government-owned company set to build 24 parks in partnership with the private sector, said a report.
The initiative is part of efforts to boost tourism in the kingdom and create additional sources of revenue and jobs.
The report, Saudi Arabia Theme Park Market Outlook to 2021, provides an analysis of the amusement parks market in Saudi Arabia. It includes the cumulative revenue generated by the market players from amusement park services in the country.
The company will develop and maintain the infrastructure for 19 parks in partnership with the private sector while seven existing parks that lack basic infrastructure would be opened to private investments.
Abdallah Al-Qarni, deputy director of natural resource management at the ministry of environment, water and agriculture, said the parks are expected to generate an estimated SAR130bn ($34.6bn) and draw 5.6 million visitors annually.
In the first phase, the company will identify investment sites and find investors for the projects.
