Qiddiya launches a tender to execute a package of works for the world’s first entertainment city of its kind, with seven zones bringing the anime universe from the screen into a live experience

Riyadh | BETH

Qiddiya Investment Company has launched a tender to execute a package of works within the Dragon Ball theme park project in Qiddiya City, in a step that advances the project from the concept and design phase toward contracting and implementation.

Spanning more than 500,000 square meters, the park will be the world’s first theme park entirely dedicated to the Dragon Ball universe, one of the most famous and globally popular Japanese anime franchises.

The project is being developed under a long-term strategic partnership between Qiddiya Investment Company and Japan’s Toei Animation, the company behind the production of the series, ensuring an experience that preserves the identity of the original work, its characters, and its stories.

Seven Balls, Seven Zones

The park’s master plan was inspired by the seven Dragon Balls at the heart of the story. The experience is distributed across seven themed zones, taking visitors through the stages of the series, from the original Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Super.

The zones recreate famous locations familiar to fans of the series, including:

• Master Roshi’s Kame House.
• Capsule Corporation headquarters.
• Beerus’ Planet.
• Locations, characters, and battles inspired by different stages of the story.

The experience is not limited to viewing models and structures. It is designed to immerse visitors in an explorable world that combines rides, shows, interactive technologies, restaurants, shops, and themed accommodation inspired by the series.

More Than 30 Rides

Dragon Ball theme park will feature more than 30 rides and entertainment experiences, including five major attractions designed to offer unprecedented experiences.

At the center of the project will stand a giant model of the dragon Shenron, approximately 70 meters high, with a massive roller coaster passing through it. It will become a visual landmark recognizable from a distance and a symbol of the park within Qiddiya.

The project’s plans also include hospitality facilities, restaurants, and shopping experiences. This means the park is not being built merely as a collection of rides visited for a few hours, but as an integrated destination capable of attracting visitors for more than one day.

What Does the Tender Mean?

Launching the package of works does not mean that the contract has been awarded or that an opening date has been set, but it represents an important transition in the project’s progress.

The project, which was globally announced in March 2024, is entering the phase of transforming drawings and engineering concepts into contracts and executable works.

A city of this scale requires multiple packages that may include construction, mechanical and electrical systems, specialized ride structures, interior fit-outs, model fabrication, display technologies, and landscaping.

The difficulty of implementation lies in the fact that the contractor is not merely building structures and rides, but recreating a world whose audience knows its smallest details. The project’s quality will therefore be judged by comparing what fans have seen on screen with what they will encounter in Qiddiya.

The Character Economy

Dragon Ball is not a conventional entertainment project.

It is an investment in the intellectual property economy, which transforms stories, characters, and their devoted audiences into tourism, hospitality, retail, games, products, and events.

The park will not need to begin searching for an audience after it opens. The franchise already has a global fan base built across generations and numerous markets.

What Qiddiya is doing is moving this audience from following the series through screens to traveling in order to enter its world. This transition creates the project’s real economic value.

Each potential international visitor does not merely purchase a ride ticket. They also require travel, accommodation, transportation, food, and shopping, and may visit other destinations in Riyadh and across the Kingdom.

From Importing to Localization

The park presents an opportunity that extends beyond hosting a global Japanese brand.

Construction, operation, maintenance, crowd management, shows, visual effects, marketing, and hospitality will create opportunities to develop specialized Saudi expertise in the theme park industry.

The greater value will not come from merely importing and implementing a successful design, but from transferring knowledge, localizing supply chains, and training talent capable of later developing Saudi and Arab experiences and characters that can reach the world.

Global intellectual properties can therefore become a school for producing local content, rather than serving as a permanent substitute for it.

a## A City Within an Ecosystem

The project gains additional strength from its location within Qiddiya City, alongside destinations dedicated to entertainment, sports, culture, motorsports, and gaming and esports.

This integration makes it possible to transform a visit from a trip to a single park into a stay in a complete entertainment city, increasing the visitor’s length of stay, spending, and number of accessible experiences.

The project also places Riyadh on the global anime tourism map and gives the Kingdom a product that does not compete only with regional destinations, but appeals to an international audience that travels to Japan and the United States for experiences inspired by characters, films, and games.

BETH Analysis

The tender shows that Dragon Ball is no longer merely an eye-catching announcement or a collection of futuristic images, but a project moving toward implementation.

However, the real test will not lie solely in the size of the park or the height of Shenron.

Anime audiences are deeply attached to detail and will judge the experience according to the accuracy of the story, the quality of the rides, the authenticity of the characters, the way visitors move between the zones, and even the food, music, and products available inside.

The project’s success therefore requires the combination of three elements:

Faithfulness to the Dragon Ball universe, innovation in the experience, and operational efficiency.

If this equation is achieved, Qiddiya will not merely have built a new theme park. It will create a global destination capable of attracting an established audience from different continents.

The tender seeks a contractor to execute a package of works.

The larger project, however, is building a place where visitors can leave their own world for a few hours and enter the story that has accompanied them for years.