Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) on Wednesday announced it had signed an agreement with American theme park company Six Flags to open the operator's first attraction in the Saudi city of Qiddiya in 2022, part of the kingdom’s wider plan to expand its cultural and entertainment offering and create new jobs for its young population.

PIF said in a press release announcing the agreement that the theme park “forms another part of the development of the sector which will help to create jobs and opportunities for young people in Saudi.”

Michael Reininger, chief executive of Qiddiya, the country’s first entertainment, sports and cultural destination, added: “With nearly two thirds of the Saudi population under the age of 35, there is a huge appetite in the kingdom for theme parks such as this one, as well as the other sporting and cultural facilities that Qiddiya will offer.”

The news is a key element of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan to develop its cultural and entertainment offerings, all part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s drive to moderise the country and make it more attractive to international tourists and investors.

Saudi Arabia late last year announced plans to lift a 35-year-old ban on cinemas. Reuters on Wednesday reported that the kingdom’s first cinema will open on April 18 in Riyadh, part of an agreement PIF signed in December with AMC Entertainment Holdings, the United States-based firm which owns the Odeon brand and is one of the largest movie exhibition companies in the world, with about 1,000 theatres and 11,000 screens across the globe.

VOX Cinemas, a unit of Dubai-based mall operator Majid Al Futtaim, also told Zawya last month it is planning to open 300 cinemas in Saudi Arabia within the next five years.

PIF is also going straight to the source and the home of cinema: Hollywood. Reuters reported that a delegation of Saudi officials met with nearly 250 representatives from major Hollywood financiers and players at an event in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

"We're starting from scratch," Faisal Bafarat, chief executive of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, a newly created board tasked with expanding entertainment options, told Reuters. Among those who had talks with Saudi officials were Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger, Warner Bros.' Kevin Tsujihara, Fox's Stacey Snider and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Reuters reported last month that PIF was also in talks to acquire a 10 percent stake in Endeavor, the holding company for Hollywood talent agency WME. The report said Saudi Arabia's wider ambitions also include plans to earmark as much as $10 billion for film projects.

However, Saudi Arabia should take some warning signs from Dubai’s rush to enter the theme park sector. DXB Entertainments, the Dubai theme park operator which is currently building its own Six Flags theme park and which is due to open in 2019, last moth reported a 1.12 billion dirham ($305 million) loss for 2017, its first full financial year in operation.

Its biggest challenge has been meeting lofty sales and revenue projections issued when it launched. In initial financial projections released in December 2016, DXB Entertainments was forecasting full-year revenue of almost 2.447 billion UAE dirhams for 2017, based on 6.7 million park visitors. However, according to the full-year results published last month, revenue for the year stood at 552 million dirhams, based on 2,275,545 visitors.

News of the PIF agreements came as it was announced yesterday that the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has held several meetings with multinational companies in conjunction with the state visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the United States of America.

On the sidelines of the meetings, SAGIA signed several agreements and granted investment licences to 13 U.S. companies in the fields of services, industry, information technology, construction, automotive, environment, food services, oil & gas, and renewable energy, the authority told Zawya.

Further reading:
Saudi delegation pitches ambitious plan for entertainment industry to Hollywood investors
Saudi Arabia eyes high value investments from the U.S.
Dubai's VOX Cinemas planning up to 300 screens in Saudi by 2021 - CEO
Hollywood hopes to cash in as Saudi Arabia lifts ban on theaters
Thrill ride: Dubai theme parks proving a real rollercoaster for investors
Saudi Arabia's first new cinema in decades to open on April 18

(Writing by Shane McGinley; Editing by Michael Fahy)
(shane.mcginley@thomsonreuters.com)

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