Iran war tests Gulf's theme park ambitions

Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with multibillion-dollar theme park investments at home and abroad, even as the Iran war disrupts Gulf tourism and exposes weaknesses in some of the region’s flagship entertainment projects.

During Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to France in August, advisers to President Emmanuel Macron announced that Qiddiya, the Saudi entertainment and leisure company owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, had signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with the French government to invest around $7 billion in three manga-themed parks outside Paris. One of them is based on the Japanese manga franchise Dragon Ball.

The announcement came as Saudi Arabia pursues an ambitious, state-backed effort to build an entertainment industry virtually from scratch under its Vision 2030 economic diversification program. Experts note that the war has weakened tourism and consumer confidence across the Gulf, compounding questions about whether the region’s rapidly expanding theme park industry can attract enough visitors to warrant the investments.

Dennis Spiegel, CEO and founder of International Theme Park Services, which has worked on more than 500 theme park projects in 55 countries, told Al-Monitor, “What Saudi Arabia has tried to do is build the theme park model like Orlando, Florida’s, in five years. Orlando, Florida, is 55 years old, and it's built on its own growth, on supply and demand. Just because you plant a flag doesn't mean they're going to come. Dubai found that out, and Saudi is going to find that out.”

Gulf building boom

The United Arab Emirates has the Middle East’s most established theme park industry. Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island is home to Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World and SeaWorld, while Dubai has developed a broader tourism and entertainment ecosystem around its attractions, with leisure accounting for roughly 80% of overnight visitors before the war.

In 2025, Disney announced plans for its first Middle Eastern theme park on Yas Island in partnership with the Abu Dhabi developer Miral. There is no official opening date, but Disney said in August that the project remains on track.

Saudi Arabia, by comparison, is pursuing a more aggressive expansion financed largely through the PIF and its companies. The kingdom has issued licenses for more than 24 theme parks and over 420 entertainment centers as part of Vision 2030, which aims to reduce the kingdom's economic dependence on oil.

The flagship development is Qiddiya City, outside Riyadh, an emerging entertainment district anchored by Six Flags Qiddiya City. The park uses the Six Flags name and intellectual property, but is funded by Saudi Arabia rather than the US theme park operator.

According to Spiegel, “It's all Saudi money, and quite frankly, that park has no supporting infrastructure around it, and by infrastructure, I mean it doesn't really have the highways, it doesn't have the retail, it doesn't have the F&B [food and beverage].” 

The kingdom is also planning the world’s first Dragon Ball theme park at Qiddiya. In December 2025, Universal said it was in the early planning stages for another theme park at the development.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar have also pursued theme and leisure parks, but on a smaller scale. For example, in November 2023, Qatar opened Meryal Waterpark, developed by Katara Hospitality. Following winter maintenance, it reopened on March 28, a month after the Iran war began.

Set back by war

There are no industry-wide figures showing how theme park attendance across the Gulf has changed since the United States and Israel jointly launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28. Aviation and hotel data, however, point to a sharp deterioration in the tourism environment, on which many of the region’s attractions depend.

Dubai International Airport handled 31.5 million passengers in the first half of 2026, down 31.3% from the same period a year earlier, while aircraft movements declined 32.1%. Before the war disrupted regional aviation, the airport had expected to handle close to 100 million passengers for the entire year.

Dubai Parks and Resorts, one of Dubai’s largest entertainment destinations, has been directly affected by the conflict. Home to Motiongate Dubai, Real Madrid World and Legoland Dubai, it closed in March amid the war and has not yet reopened. The company did not respond to Al-Monitor's request for comment.

Spiegel said the war had set the Gulf's leisure industry back “five to seven years.”

“The Iran war has undermined consumer confidence at home, not least because of the impact it has had on economic growth and personal income,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at the Emlyon Business School in Shanghai. “Internationally, the region’s image has suffered amid security concerns. People are less likely to travel than they were, and in cases where people are still using Gulf carriers, they are transiting rather than dwelling in places such as Doha and Dubai.”

Chadwick added, “Put another way, theme parks alone are no way to establish and sustain economic and industrial resilience.”

The available figures do not establish how individual parks are performing across the Gulf, but the disruption has heightened existing concerns about projects that depend on sustained domestic spending, international tourism and extensive supporting infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia’s gamble

The concerns involving projects dependent on strong tourism are particularly significant for Saudi Arabia, which is attempting to establish a major leisure industry on an accelerated timetable, in accordance with the Vision 2030 timeline.

Hotel occupancy in Riyadh fell 17.9% year-on-year to 49.3% between January and April 2026 due to the instability caused by the Iran war, according to the global real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

Spiegel said the flagship Six Flags park at Qiddiya was struggling to attract visitors, citing limited infrastructure, weak marketing and operating hours shaped by the kingdom’s climate. The company did not respond to Al-Monitor's request for comment. Because of extreme daytime heat, noted Spiegel, the park operates in the evening, when visits can be more difficult for families with young children.

“That park wasn't prepared well with its surrounding amenities, and nor has it been prepared well and marketed well to the locals with the Iranian war going on, so it has languished,” Spiegel said. “It's not getting any real attendance at this time.”

Chadwick said the war may also have exposed the risks of relying too heavily on Saudi consumer demand.

“The tone of Saudi Arabian messaging around entertainment and leisure developments has, over the last few years, been ‘by Saudis for Saudis,’” Chadwick said. “However, this has always been a rather insular view dependent upon the strength of confidence and expenditure at home.”

Fiscal pressure and regional instability could help explain why Saudi Arabia is looking to place some of its entertainment investments overseas, Chadwick added.

Other experts caution against interpreting the French deal as a retreat from the kingdom’s domestic plans.

Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, said demand for entertainment inside Saudi Arabia remains strong, and the sector continues to enjoy substantial state backing despite cuts elsewhere in the PIF’s investment portfolio.

“It’s a clear market opportunity given the dearth of recreation options in the kingdom,” Diwan told Al-Monitor. “The Six Flags theme park in Qiddiya is anchoring an entire entertainment district that includes gaming, a sector with serious long-term commitment by the PIF.”

Diwan said the proposed investment in France was primarily a way to deepen ties with a country whose importance to Saudi Arabia is growing as a political and defense partner. “But placing some entertainment investments outside the Kingdom may also appear prudent given the uncertainty in Gulf security,” she concluded.