France, Saudi Arabia Sign €6 Billion Paris Theme Park Deal Creating 22,000 Jobs
Updated
Updated · Quartz · Aug 25
France, Saudi Arabia Sign €6 Billion Paris Theme Park Deal Creating 22,000 Jobs
3 articles · Updated · Quartz · Aug 25
Summary
A €6 billion memorandum signed Monday will fund three theme parks near Cergy-Pontoise, about 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, including a Dragon Ball Z attraction.
Qiddiya — a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund — will lead the project, which will be built in stages and has no opening date yet.
Macron said the investment would create more than 20,000 jobs, while the French presidency put the figure at 22,000, topping Disneyland Paris's roughly 20,000 workforce.
The agreement was finalized during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's two-day state visit and grew out of a December 2024 Riyadh conversation with Macron about manga and Dragon Ball Z.
The announcement fits Macron's Choose France push to attract foreign capital, though the visit also drew criticism from French journalists' unions over the Khashoggi-linked judicial investigation.