Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with multibillion-dollar theme park investments at home and abroad, even as the Iran war disrupts Gulf tourism and exposes weaknesses in some of the region’s flagship entertainment projects.

During Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to France in August, advisers to President Emmanuel Macron announced that Qiddiya, the Saudi entertainment and leisure company owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, had signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with the French government to invest around $7 billion in three manga-themed parks outside Paris. One of them is based on the Japanese manga franchise Dragon Ball.

The announcement came as Saudi Arabia pursues an ambitious, state-backed effort to build an entertainment industry virtually from scratch under its Vision 2030 economic diversification program. Experts note that the war has weakened tourism and consumer confidence across the Gulf, compounding questions about whether the region’s rapidly expanding theme park industry can attract enough visitors to warrant the investments.

Dennis Spiegel, CEO and founder of International Theme Park Services, which has worked on more than 500 theme park projects in 55 countries, told Al-Monitor, “What Saudi Arabia has tried to do is build the theme park model like Orlando, Florida’s, in five years. Orlando, Florida, is 55 years old, and it's built on its own growth, on supply and demand. Just because you plant a flag doesn't mean they're going to come. Dubai found that out, and Saudi is going to find that out.”