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SEVEN attraction renders Saudi

SEVEN: bringing a new genre of entertainment to Saudi Arabia

We speak to Damien Latham, chief attractions officer at Saudi Entertainment Ventures, about the company’s plans for 21 innovative new entertainment destinations

Damien Latham SEVEN

Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN), under its mandate to enhance the quality of life for millions of people in Saudi Arabia by improving the choice and quality of entertainment offerings, is investing SAR 50 billion ($13 billion) in the development of 21 entertainment destinations across 14 cities.

SEVEN is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). It has now started building its first entertainment destination in the Al Hamra district of Riyadh. In all, it will create 21 entertainment destinations, two theme parks and 50 cinemas across the Kingdom.

To find out more about these new entertainment destinations, which will include partnerships with the likes of Warner Bros. Discovery, Mattel and Hasbro, blooloop speaks to Damien Latham, chief attractions officer at Saudi Entertainment Ventures.

SEVEN: revolutionising entertainment in Saudi Arabia

SEVEN is in a unique position, says Latham, in that it has been able to start from scratch in terms of the Kingdom’s entertainment offer:

“We were able to start with the question of what the people of Saudi Arabia really want as their entertainment. If you look at the entertainment infrastructure that has been built over the years in the UK, we’ve had the luxury of testing things, understanding how it works, evolving, etc. Not so here in the Kingdom. So, we’ve had to rely on a huge amount of research.”

“We’ve gone out there and asked more than 24,000 consumers across the Kingdom. And we’ve distilled down more than 20 different types of attractions that people would like to see in their backyard. As a result, we’ve adopted this hub-and-spoke approach to how we populate our attractions inside these entertainment destinations.

“As we were gathering that data, we really had to understand what we mean when we say entertainment destination. We’re not theme parks, we’re not shopping malls. It’s a new genre of entertainment.

“One of the ways I describe it is that it’s like if you took Disney Springs, and you put a few more attractions into it. So, you take that speciality retail in that environment, you take that wonderful food and beverage in that themed environment, and then you plug in a few more attractions. That’s what we’re aspiring to be, a step beyond even that.”

Bowling, FECs, snow parks, water parks and more

SEVEN has over 150 location-based entertainment attractions across its portfolio which it will use to bring life to this new generation of entertainment destinations for Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Entertainment Ventures

“We’ve populated those 21 destinations with everything from bowling centres and golfing centres to snow parks and ski slopes, to indoor water parks, to aquariums, to go-karting tracks, and more.

“As a company, we are actively bringing entertainment to a population of very entertainment-savvy people, 60 to 65% of whom are under the age of 35. Maintaining a relevant type of entertainment is always on our mind, creating things that cater to this audience and that fit this region.

“We’re not just looking to replicate what they’re doing in Dubai, for instance, or the UK. This has all been designed from scratch.”

The company has broken ground on its first location, the flagship development in the Al Hamra district of Riyadh. This will include over 167,000 square metres of entertainment offerings, from indoor surfing and skydiving to bowling, cinemas, restaurants and retail outlets. Plus, it will feature a Warner Bros. Discovery edutainment attraction, a Clip ‘n Climb climbing experience, and a Transformers-themed ride. It is expected to attract 6 million visitors annually.

SEVEN’s locations across Saudi Arabia

SEVEN’s 21 entertainment destinations will be located in Riyadh, Kharj, Makkah, Jeddah, Taif, Dammam, Khobar, Al Ahsa, Madinah, Yanbu, Abha, Jazan, Buraidah, and Tabuk. Expanding on the kind of audience that these destinations will cater to, Latham says:

“Our offer is family-centric, but then that can be broken down into various different segments in its own right. For example, groups of teenagers will be catered for in our teen arcades, adventure centres and waterparks. Then, the little ones will be catered for with things like our junior family entertainment centres and the recent signing of Play-Doh as an IP.”

SEVEN concept Play Doh entertainment centre

“We’re creating Play-Doh imagination centres where you can go in and either take part in a workshop and create something amazing with Play-Doh or go to the fun lab and experience Play-Doh in a different way.

“So, we’re catering for the very small right the way through to teenagers and those in their early 20s and beyond.”

A wide range of entertainment on offer

Giving more details about the kind of entertainment on offer, he adds:

“We’ve created three different surf restaurant concepts, where we’ve partnered with WhiteWater to create three Flow Houses, in Riyadh, Khobar and Jeddah. These surf destinations will certainly be something completely unique to the Kingdom, but also globally. That gives a different flavour, for a different segment.

“There will be aquariums as well. For instance, our aquarium in Khobar is going to be absolutely groundbreaking. We’re really happy with the way that design has been evolving. And then we’ve got indoor skydiving tunnels as well.”

“We’re not just selecting typologies for typology’s sake; we’re also fusing typologies of attractions as well.

“For example, if you take a waterpark and an adventure park and you throw the two together, you’ve got a water adventure park. That means that you don’t necessarily have lots of the standard rides and attractions that you’d see in a waterpark, but maybe you do some cliff diving activities, maybe some scuba diving activities or some water caving. You take that spirit of adventure and put it in a water environment.

“Essentially, we’ve been able to take that data and that research that we’ve done, looking at what people want, and use that to dream a bit more.”

SEVEN brings fun for all in Saudi Arabia

This innovative spirit will be brought together under one roof with gated experiences, pay-and-play attractions, retail, and food and beverage offerings, as well as spaces to relax.

“We have those staple attractions that people can go to every weekend, like a bowling centre, we’re creating a very specific themed adventure golf concept, which is technically extremely advanced, or our FEC concept that we’ve developed. These are attractions that you can go to time and time again, with the family. They are fairly low-cost and very repeatable.”

SEVEN entertainment concepts Saudi

“We’re mixing the gated experience of the big box items like our water parks and ski parks, with those pay-and-play attractions. That way, we are creating a public realm where everyone can be entertained.

“We’ll then populate that public realm with wonderful food and beverage, and wonderful retailtainment. People can just come in and have a coffee and sit in that public realm. They could watch a piece of theatre or whatever piece of entertainment we’ve put in for that particular weekend or evening.”

Transformers, Hot Wheels and more

SEVEN has so far announced several big IP deals, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Hasbro, Mattel and Clip ‘n Climb, with lots more still to be revealed. Talking about the projects in development with Mattel, Latham says:

“With our partnership with Mattel, we’re looking to develop six karting centres across the Kingdom. These will be themed around its Hot Wheels brand. One will be at our flagship site here in Riyadh with others peppered around the Kingdom.”

SEVEN Hot Wheels attraction Saudi

Then, with Hasbro, SEVEN has three Transformers-themed attractions in the pipeline:

“This isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen. It’s not just one ride or one attraction. We’re recreating Cybertron inside a location-based entertainment box of around 10,000 square metres. We’ve completed the concepts for those and had full buy-in and support from both Hasbro and SEVEN’s board.

“During the process, we’ve been able to work with some cool creative companies. For Transformers we worked with AOA, and we worked with Thinkwell on the Play-Doh concept.”

Partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery

In partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, SEVEN will create a number of Discovery-branded indoor edutainment attractions in Saudi Arabia. The first will be a 3,000-square-metre attraction at the Al Hamra location. This will be the first of its kind to open in the world.

SEVEN Discovery Centre concept

In addition, Clip ‘n Climb, an international leader in the fun climbing market, has signed a license agreement with SEVEN to build and operate a number of Clip ‘n Climb centres across the network of entertainment destinations. Again, the first location will be at the flagship Al Hamra destination.

Clip n Climb concept SEVEN

“In the coming months, we hope to announce two further IPs to support other typologies within our portfolio,” adds Latham. “One of them is an IP that’s never been used in the true sense of location-based entertainment. All of these deals are exclusive to SEVEN and many of them are never seen before attractions.”

Choosing the right IP for Saudi Arabia

This doesn’t mean, however, that SEVEN is only using external IP, adds Latham:

“This is not a mission to flood SEVEN with global IP. This is a mission to have familiar IP, that translates easily into attractions. But at the same time, more than 80% of our portfolio will be Saudi-created IP. It is important that we resonate with our audience.”

When it comes to choosing suitable IP, Latham says that his team has handpicked brands that have a strong presence in the region.

Transformers attraction concept Saudi

“Play-Doh, for example, is an iconic brand. Everybody’s played with it, it was everybody’s favourite as a kid. It’s still current, but actually, it dates back 80 years. Hot Wheels dates back to the 60s. Or look at Transformers. Yes, there are new films about to come out, but it’s a brand that’s been around since the 80s. Also, when you look at Discovery, that’s another media brand with wonderful content that has inspired us to create an attraction out of it.

“We’ve picked brands that resonate with both the children of today and the children of yesteryear. In my view, that’s the secret to success. When you’re selecting IP partners, you want a credible partner that knows what they’re doing. You want a partner that has a proven track record, and you want something that’s going to resonate with the consumer.”

Retail and F&B

SEVEN also expects to attract a range of F&B and retail brands to its entertainment destinations:

“We have begun to get a lot of interest from local and international food and beverage operators and providers. 70% to 80% of the space inside the destinations will be for attractions, and then we will balance that with food and beverage and retail, curated to go together seamlessly.”

Now that construction is underway and SEVEN has announced some of its key IP partnerships, Latham says that interest from these F&B and retail partners will grow.

“That momentum will continue to build, and you’ll see a number of partnerships and developments in both those sectors.

“Having that ungated approach to our destinations means that families can just go there to sit and watch. They can go and have an ice cream or go for a meal and maybe they don’t go to an attraction that weekend, but they are still there, they are still immersed in that fun environment. It’s affordable and repeatable, which are key attributes.”

SEVEN & Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030

Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) was established by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to serve as the investment and development arm for the entertainment sector – a key pillar of the ambitious social and economic plans undertaken in the Kingdom. Talking about where SEVEN fits into this bigger picture, in terms of Saudi Arabia’s goals, Latham says:

“Compared with the five giga-projects, like Qiddiya and the Red Sea Project, we are far more local. We are not tourism driven; we are for the people. So, we are making sure that everything that we do is going to be for the everyday population of the Kingdom. In this, we are a key part of that overarching 2030 vision and strategy, to make sure that every element of what the Kingdom set out to achieve in that vision is being covered.”

Play Doh attraction concept Saudi

“We’re entertainment for the 35 million people of Saudi Arabia, and that’s how we’ve tailored our offer.

“One of the things that we have done is to create flexible entertainment spaces. We’re coining these black boxes at the moment. With these, we can rotate entertainment on a weekly or monthly basis. That means we’ll be bringing in fresh entertainment on an ongoing basis, from live entertainment to expos. We built in a degree of modularity and flexibility, with that 2030 vision in mind, so that we can adapt accordingly.”

Sustainability is key

Sustainability is a big part of the Saudi Vision 2030. It has, therefore, informed the decisions that SEVEN is making as well.

For example:

“Right back at the early stages of design, we wanted to ensure that we had modularity. So, with every single typology of attraction, we came up with a predisposed size or box that would then, as a kit of parts, fit around different-sized land locations, in different configurations.”

SEVEN ski park water park concept

“We worked with Gensler, probably the world’s best architectural firm. Together, we came up with that modular approach and site-specific approach to our attractions portfolio. This then brought about huge synergies in terms of the types of material finishes that we can use, right down to vertical transport and the types of lifts.

“From an environmental sustainability perspective, that gives you a much easier job in achieving environmental goals and sustainability, if you design right from the very outset with that in mind. When you get the absolute right size of attraction, it has so many different knock-on effects.”

A lifetime in attractions

Latham has worked in the attractions industry for his entire career, beginning as a lifeguard for Center Parcs. When he left the organisation 13 years later, he had worked his way up to the position of leisure manager and was looking for a new challenge. This took him to the Middle East:

“I had a phone call one day from a waterpark contractor who said, ‘Hey, we’re building a water park in the Middle East for Majid al Futtaim, and we think you’d be a great fit for the general manager position. Do you want us to put your name forward?'”

He worked for Majid al Futtaim for nearly a decade, eventually serving as the company’s CEO of leisure and entertainment. He followed this with 18 months as CEO of Emaar Entertainment, before moving to SEVEN in 2019.

“The evolution in terms of where we were in 2019 to where we are today has been huge, both in terms of our budgetary expectations, but also our underlying ambition,” he says, of his first three years in the role.

SEVEN’s goal in Saudi Arabia

Latham’s own experience, following this lengthy career in the attractions industry, gives him unique insight into how teamwork can make or break a project. As SEVEN continues with its mammoth task of delivering 21 entertainment destinations across Saudi Arabia, Latham praises those involved:

“We haven’t got here without having a fabulous team. We’ve put our trust and faith in a team of around 300 people to achieve this goal. I often say that the town halls or get-togethers and gatherings that we have here can’t be underestimated.”

saudi entertainment destinations
SEVEN’s flagship destination in Al Hamra

“People sometimes overlook the fact that the culture within an organisation is really important. Fostering that can-do mentality is something that we’ve benefited from hugely here at SEVEN. I would say it’s part of our secret sauce.”

He finishes by adding:

“We are actively looking for other people to join us in this mission. We know we need help from all corners of the Kingdom, as well as all corners of the globe. Companies or individuals that want to get involved with SEVEN should feel free to reach out. We’d love to hear from them.”

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charlotte coates

Charlotte Coates

Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.

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