A short drive away from the Saudi capital Riyadh, one of the largest entertainment, sports and cultural cities in the world is now beginning to take shape. Offering such varied attractions as amusement parks, racetracks, sports stadia and arts centers, Qiddiya will transform Saudi Arabia’s nascent entertainment industry and attract visitors from across the Middle East and beyond.
Qiddiya CEO Michael Reininger talks to Buzz about the current state of the project and his ambitions for its future.
What progress are you making with delivery of Qiddiya?
We have already concluded the masterplan for the total of the project, which covers 334 square kilometers of land. Now we are moving into the execution phase, where we are putting the meat on the bones of the plan. We are also building the Visitor Experience Centre, which will be ready by the end of the year. That will give visitors a full understanding of the sheer scale and ambition of Qiddiya.
Which of the five thematic areas of Qiddiya is developing fastest?
All of them. Qiddiya is a magically integrated place. We have these five cornerstones – Parks & Attractions; Sports & Wellness; Motion & Mobility for motor and sky sports; Nature & Environment; and Arts & Culture – but these five concepts are ideas and frameworks. They are not silos or geographies. Qiddiya is a melting pot.
That means that as you move about the site you are going to see entertainment opportunities, sports opportunities, arts opportunities all over the place. This will be a sports and a festival town. Arts and cultural activities are going to happen on the front lawn of an ice- and roller-skating arena. There will be motorsports literally driving through the middle of a retail, dining, entertainment and attractions area. That doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.
People have too narrow a view of what Qiddiya is all about. The Six Flags Qiddiya amusement park is an important component of Qiddiya, but it is only one. As the Master Plan becomes known, there will be a greater appreciation that Qiddiya is so much more than just an amusement park.
When do you expect to welcome your first visitors?
The first quarter of 2023. We call it the Big Bang approach. We are going to have a grand opening event. There will be a few earlier events, such as the Dakar Rally in 2020. They will be appetizers for the main course. The main course will be served all at once about four years from now.
How much demand do you expect?
The Saudi market has a deep desire and appetite for the opportunities that entertainment, arts and sports offer to the enrichment of somebody’s life. They already go all over the world and spend millions of dollars a year – last year about $10 billion – in search of opportunities in these three areas, outside of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mainly because those opportunities don’t yet exist in the domestic marketplace. We have this huge marketplace with demonstrated demand and unfulfilled supply. It is a wonderful business proposition.
“We are building a Qiddiya Academy. This gets to the heart of the economic diversification aspects of Vision 2030 and the lifestyle ambitions we are trying to fulfill.”
Michael Reininger, CEO, Qiddiya
Apart from Saudi nationals, who else will visit Qiddiya?
We will have three markets: the domestic market is our number one by size and importance. Our number two market will be GCC-inbound tourism visitation. Our third market will be international tourism.
We also think we have three different kinds of customers. We have a casual customer. This is a person proximate to Qiddiya, in Riyadh or the surrounding area. It is easily accessible to them. Then we have destination customers. These are people who are going to pack up the car and come to Qiddiya for a purpose-built leisure experience. Then there is the third kind of customer – a resident customer. People will live in Qiddiya, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
What impact will Qiddiya have on the local economy?
By 2030, we will have 25,000 direct employees in the universe of Qiddiya. We are opening up industrial sectors in the hospitality, entertainment, sports and arts industries, sectors that do not exist today. We are also building scholarship programs where we are going to start sending people to dedicated educational opportunities around the world so they can get the experience in these industries. We are building a Qiddiya Academy. This gets to the heart of the economic diversification aspects of Vision 2030 and the lifestyle ambitions we are trying to fulfill.
What interest are you seeing from potential investors and operators?
We have a giant portfolio of opportunities at the smallest scale, where someone can take advantage of this marketplace and opportunity we are building. That could be someone with a great food and beverage or entertainment concept, a great retail opportunity. They could buy and build or lease a space and set up their business.
There are other larger venture opportunities that we are talking about and pursuing all the time. We are looking for collaborators who come to us with an expertise or capability. We could set up a venture with someone who wants to operate one of the portfolio of hotels we are building. Or somebody that wants to build rental apartments in our City Centre with us. We could be a minority partner or a majority partner, riding alongside each other and leveraging each other’s capabilities.
“The Saudi market has a deep desire and appetite for the opportunities that entertainment, arts and sports offer to the enrichment of somebody’s life.”
Michael Reininger, CEO, Qiddiya
Then there are large-scale ways to participate in the program financially. Our principal shareholder [the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia] is a very large, stable financial institution. They are completely strategically aligned with the direction of the entire Kingdom. Qiddiya is being built with significant equity that comes from our principal shareholder, but we will also have debt vehicles. If someone in the world of finance wants to participate by providing debt, if they want to participate at an equity level, from an individual asset to a piece of the company – those opportunities are going to be available.
The nature of these conversations is becoming concrete. It is exciting. People who recognize these kinds of first-mover opportunities very quickly understand the potential of the Qiddiya story
