Photo: Bandar Aljaloud/AP
The agreement was announced following talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman on August 24. According to Reuters, the Saudi side will implement the project through Qiddiya, a company linked to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
“This is a new global tourism hub,” Macron said, emphasizing the scale of the future project. “Nothing comparable in scale has been built in France since Disneyland Paris.”
One of the parks is expected to be dedicated to the Japanese manga and anime series *Dragon Ball Z*. However, the French government has not yet officially confirmed the franchise’s name. The themes of the other two parks have also not been disclosed. According to Macron’s advisors, the idea for the project arose after a meeting between the French president and the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh in December 2024, where they discovered a shared interest in manga and Dragon Ball Z.
The future complex will be located on the site of the former Mirapolis amusement park. It opened in 1987 but closed just four years later. According to an official statement from Paris and Riyadh, the current concept calls for up to three major facilities, hotels, and additional spaces for entertainment, culture, and sports. The total investment is estimated at approximately €6 billion over the entire project development cycle.
Construction is planned to proceed in phases and is expected to take several years. The opening date has not yet been determined.
For Saudi Arabia, the project in France is part of a broader strategy to develop the entertainment industry and reduce the economy’s dependence on oil revenues. According to Arab News, the agreement on the parks was one of more than two dozen agreements signed by Paris and Riyadh during bin Salman’s visit to France. These agreements cover, in particular, defense, artificial intelligence, new technologies, transportation, healthcare, and tourism.
The Saudi Crown Prince’s visit was also met with criticism in France. Human rights organizations and journalists’ unions opposed his reception in Paris, citing the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the related allegations.
Paris, meanwhile, hopes to use Saudi investments to strengthen France’s status as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations.
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