Saudi Arabia is expecting “around a million guests a year” to visit its oil rig-themed “adventure tourism” park that will feature an underwater restaurant, “immersive theater,” and multiple hotels, the executive in charge of the project told the Emirati newspaper The National on Tuesday.
The project, simply called “The Rig,” will be a series of floating offshore attractions built into both a formerly operative oil rig and newly constructed platforms, developers have promised, featuring a water park, roller coasters, and diving and submarine activities. The idea is “inspired by Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas heritage” and tied to “Vision 2030,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s all-encompassing plan to move Saudi Arabia’s economy away from dependence on oil and gas.
“The Rig” is one of several extravagant tourism projects bin Salman, the de facto leader of the country, has approved since the implementation of Vision 2030 in 2016. Tourism is a critical pillar of the plan to move the economy away from fossil fuels, an ambitious proposal given Saudi Arabia’s longtime reputation of being a haven for fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam. The country introduced the availability of tourist visas in 2019, after bin Salman assumed the position of crown prince, and began preparing the country for an influx of tourists with employee training programs to give job opportunities to local workers.
Bin Salman has invested billions in changing the public face of Saudi Arabia into one competing with the neighboring United Arab Emirates, which welcomed a record 17 million tourists to Dubai in 2023 looking for luxurious, high-end experiences.
File/How it all began… man and camel near oil well in Saudi Arabia, circa 1940’s. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)
In addition to The Rig, Saudi Arabia announced the development this year of a theme park based on the Japanese anime series Dragonball Z and the expected opening of the first tourist resort in “Neom,” a brand-new city under construction that the crown prince has said he hopes to see “compete with Miami” to attract large-scale events and tourism.
Bin Salman has also spearheaded efforts to turn Saudi Arabia into a professional sports superpower. The country won the honor of hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup, arguably the world’s most-watched sports tournament, in November, after no other country contested its bid. Golf’s PGA tour announcing in June that it would merge with the Saudi-developed LIV Golf league also made it a key player in that global sport, prompting international outrage from human rights activists, who object to Saudi Arabia’s abysmal record of protecting basic civil liberties, particularly its oppression of women and non-Arab minorities. Neom has especially attracted criticism from human rights experts as it is being built on the land of the indigenous Huwaitat tribe, whose members say they are being unceremoniously expelled from their land and killed if they public object to the theft.
The Rig will actually consist of four rigs, some of them built out of a former operating oil rig, off the east coast of Saudi Arabia, The National reported. Raed Bakhrji, the chief executive in charge of developing the park, told the newspaper that the project will feature never-before-seen facilities such as what he described as a “fully immersive theater … where it allows the visitors to be part of the show.” That attraction, built into one of the rigs called the Jackup, will apparently pop tourists into the heart of an ongoing adventure, where they will interact with actors to tell the story.
“When people arrive at this Jackup rig, they’re immediately inside this action-adventure story, where they get to learn and experience something very new using a lot of technology,” Bakhrji said. “There are also a lot of actors that play specific roles and the experience is being enabled by virtual or augmented reality in some ways.”
Another one of the four rigs, the “Derrick,” will host “a 6,000-person open-air multipurpose arena,” the executive claimed. Virtual renderings of the future project appear to show it as a venue for sporting events, making it a potential host of a World Cup match.
Other rigs will feature amusement park rides, a full water park, and other more traditional offerings. On one of the four, the “Moonpool,” developers are building an underwater restaurant.
“We aim to attract around a million guests a year by the time the project reaches full maturity. It’s designed to accommodate more than 10,000 visitors a day,” Bakhrji told the National.
The Emirati newspaper reported, citing the Norwegian oil and gas magazine Upstream, that the project is “likely to be worth more than $5 billion.” Bakhrji refused to estimate the price of the amusement park.
The Saudi government is closely involved in the development of the project. In a press release published on March 3, the company in charge of the Rig, the Oil Park Development Company (OPDC), announced that it had signed a memorandum with the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz for the construction of the luxury getaway.
“THE RIG. will be a catalyst for the growth across essential sectors, including tourism, transportation, and commerce, which will in turn enhance the quality of life for residents and strengthen the Eastern Province’s economy,” Prince Saud said at the time.
Bakhrji directly tied the project to Vision 2030 at the time.
“THE RIG. draws its inspiration from Vision 2030 and its initiatives to develop the tourism sector,” the executive said, “and it is expected to be one of the leading adventure tourism destinations aiming to attract more than 900,000 visitors annually by 2032.”
OPDC is owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.