Six Flags set for Middle East debut in Saudi mega entertainment city
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Six Flags Qiddiya City will feature more than two dozen rides, including the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SIX FLAGS/FACEBOOK
Follow topic:
RIYADH – The Middle East is about to get its first Six Flags Entertainment theme park as Saudi Arabia prepares to open a new location on Dec 31.
Six Flags Qiddiya City will feature more than two dozen rides, including the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster – called Falcons Flight – and cost about 325 Saudi riyals (S$112) for an adult ticket, according to a statement late on Nov 15 from the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The park will be the first location outside North America for North Carolina-based Six Flags, which recently cut its earnings outlook for the second time in 2025 as it struggles with admissions revenue. Its shares are down almost 70 per cent for the year to date, putting it on course for its worst year in history.
For Saudi Arabia, Six Flags will be the first entertainment park of its kind. The kingdom has been rapidly growing and investing in its entertainment industry in recent years as part of an economic overhaul designed to give residents a better lifestyle.
The park is located in the Tuwaiq Mountains on the outskirts of Riyadh in Qiddiya City, an entertainment and sports hub currently under construction that is eventually set to span an area more than three times the size of the city of Paris.
Qiddiya, which is being developed by Qiddiya Investment and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has an estimated project value of almost US$32 billion (S$41.5 billion), according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank. More than $8 billion in work has already been commissioned, it said.
The development is among a long list of so-called giga projects in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 portfolio, which includes Neom’s The Line development in the kingdom’s north-west.
Qiddiya is expected to take priority over many other giga developments going forward, Bloomberg has reported.
Six Flags would be the first asset to open in Qiddiya City and is expected to be followed by a water park called Aquarabia. Qiddiya is also set to be home to a stadium for Fifa World Cup football matches in 2034. Bloomberg
