France and Saudi Arabia have announced plans for a vast new €6 billion entertainment destination near Paris, in a landmark investment that could reshape the European theme park landscape and create one of the continent’s most ambitious new tourism developments.
The project was confirmed during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s official visit to France on 24 August 2026, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace. The two leaders used the visit to strengthen the wider strategic partnership between France and Saudi Arabia, with tourism, entertainment and investment emerging as major areas of cooperation.
At the centre of the announcement is a major multi-park destination planned for Cergy-Pontoise in the Île-de-France region, around 30 kilometres north-west of central Paris. Qiddiya Investment Company intends to develop an integrated destination bringing together entertainment, leisure, hospitality, culture and sport. Current plans envisage as many as three major entertainment anchors, alongside hotels and complementary leisure experiences, with total investment of approximately €6 billion across the development lifecycle.
One of the headline attractions is expected to draw inspiration from the hugely popular Japanese manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball. Reports surrounding the announcement indicate that a Dragon Ball-themed park will form a major part of the development, giving the project a strong connection to the rapidly expanding global market for anime-led entertainment.
The development is expected to create approximately 22,000 jobs while strengthening Cergy-Pontoise’s position as a major leisure destination within the wider Paris region. The scale of the investment also places the project among the most significant new theme park developments proposed in Europe in recent decades.
Behind the investment is Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya Investment Company, which has already developed substantial expertise in large-scale entertainment projects as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 diversification programme. Its flagship Qiddiya City development near Riyadh brings together theme parks, sport, gaming, hospitality and entertainment within a vast destination built around leisure and experience-led tourism.
Dragon Ballis already central to that strategy. Qiddiya City is developing a dedicated Dragon Ball Theme Park spanning more than 500,000 square metres, with themed zones, major rides and attractions, hotels and immersive recreations of locations from the franchise.
That experience provides an indication of the scale and ambition Qiddiya could bring to its French development, although the final design, attractions and intellectual property mix for the Paris project have yet to be confirmed.
The investment also has significant implications for France’s tourism economy. Paris is already home to Disneyland Paris, one of Europe’s dominant theme park destinations, but a new multi-billion-euro attraction combining internationally recognised entertainment franchises, hotels, culture and leisure could broaden the region’s appeal still further and encourage visitors to extend their stays beyond central Paris.
Rather than a single traditional amusement park, the project points towards the creation of a fully integrated destination capable of attracting international tourists for multi-day visits. Hotels and complementary entertainment facilities will therefore be critical to its ability to compete at a global level.
The announcement also represents another step in Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing influence across global tourism, sport and entertainment. Having invested heavily in developing visitor attractions within the Kingdom, Saudi-backed companies are increasingly looking internationally, combining investment capital with globally recognised brands and large-scale destination development expertise.
For France, the project offers substantial foreign investment, thousands of jobs and the prospect of another major international tourism attraction close to one of the world’s most visited cities. For Saudi Arabia, it provides a highly visible European platform for Qiddiya and another means of extending the Kingdom’s growing entertainment industry beyond its domestic market.
No opening date has yet been announced, and construction is expected to take several years. Nevertheless, with a proposed investment of around €6 billion, up to three major entertainment anchors and a potential Dragon Ball centrepiece, the Cergy-Pontoise development has the potential to become one of Europe’s most important new leisure and tourism projects.
