Rawae Co Water Park opens Saudi Arabia to the rest of the world as a leisure destination

Water parks have been an intrinsic part of the entertainment and tourism landscape for decades, providing fun and recreation for millions of guests around the world. A fixture in North America, these destinations are pillars of the continent’s leisure landscape. That’s why water parks have developed a reputation for generating strong revenue and attracting powerful investors, big-name suppliers and developers. With Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the consumer demand and desire for these attractions are making their way to the country.

Local companies like Rawae Co are helping lead the charge. The company was started in 1978 by entrepreneurs Mohammed Radwan and Sahar Banaja, who focused on retail segments. But over the course of decades, they’ve expanded their investments into other growing markets. “Rawae has been shifting more towards the entertainment industry for years now,” says Abdulsalam Radwan, Managing Partner/General Manager at Rawae Co. And most recently, the company has focused its sights on an underserved area of Saudi Arabia’s entertainment landscape. “Once we introduced a water element to our children’s activity centers, a new, encouraging path was created which ultimately led to our most exciting venture: water parks and high-performance attractions.”

The company recognized that by bringing in the right partners, a world-class water park could contribute to the Vision 2030 goal of making Saudi Arabia a leading global destination for entertainment and tourism. To aid their venture into water parks, Rawae Co. looked to existing partnerships for the expertise they needed – which led them to the award-winning Canadian water ride supplier ProSlide. “We found success adopting ProSlide’s equipment for our children’s activity centers” says Radwan. “In the process we learned a lot about the water parks industry and developed a trust between both our companies.”

“ProSlide cherishes the value of the strong, long-term partnerships we have with clients like Disney, Six Flags, SeaWorld, Yas Waterworld, Atlantis and Universal Studios,” says Philip Baker, ProSlide’s Vice-President Business Development, MEA. “In this new partnership with Rawae, we’re not only bringing the world-class water rides seen at these kinds of industry-leading parks around the world, we’re also bringing our expertise, from concept to implementation, to help them fulfill their vision for a vibrant, entertainment-filled Saudi Arabia.”

With the country’s new focus on entertainment, now seems to be the perfect time to bring a world-class water park to Saudi Arabia. Radwan asserts that Rawae is the right company to help usher in this new time in the Saudi market: “Rawae’s long journey in entertaining families in Saudi and the experience built in aquatic attractions makes us a natural leader for that position.” The company is set to open a state-of-the-art water park in the city of Jeddah, with water rides supplied exclusively by ProSlide, in 2022.

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