Saudi Arabia seeks investors for $135m Medina ferris wheel

• Giant ferris wheel in Medina proposed
• Height yet to be disclosed
• Part of ‘Umrah plus’ push

Saudi Arabia is seeking private investors for a proposed giant ferris wheel in Medina, as the kingdom increases its reliance on private capital and sharpens its focus on attractions for pilgrims and domestic travellers.

The SAR511 million ($136 million) Hijaz Eye, as it is called the government’s Invest Saudi platform – a database of 2,200 state investment opportunities – is planned to be built on a 33,700 square metre plot of land, roughly equal to five football fields. Its height was not disclosed in the prospectus for the tender.

The pitch to investors says it is, “the best destination to get a bird’s eye view of the city”.

It also frames the project as one for the local tourist market, saying the Eye will “enrich the experience of pilgrims” and address the “growing need to increase cultural communication among pilgrims.”

Invest Saudi claims the ferris wheel could repay investors in seven years.

It would not be the first large ferris wheel in the region. Dubai has the Ain Dubai, which has been plagued with issues since it briefly opened in October 2021. It went on to shut and reopen several times. It is closed at the time of writing.

Domestic and religious tourism sit at the core of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy. With the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the kingdom attracts millions of religious tourists each year.

In 2025, 14 million visitors came from overseas to Saudi Arabia for religious purposes, Ministry of Tourism data shows – twice the number who came for leisure and seven times those who came for business.

About 14 million domestic tourists travelled for religious purposes, with 6.5 million visiting Medina.

At the Future Hospitality Summit investment forum in Riyadh last month, Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Saudi deputy tourism minister for destination enablement, said visits grew 8 percent year on year in the first three months of this year, “mainly driven by strong domestic demand” and “despite the regional conflict”.

Encouraging pilgrims to venture beyond the holy sites is a push known in the industry as “Umrah plus”.

At the same investment forum, Amin Ismail, managing director of investment advisory Certares, suggested more should be done to extend the length of stay of pilgrims: “A lot can be done in terms of Umrah and Hajj plus.”

• Domestic holidays kept Saudi tourism hot during war
• Promise alone is not enough for investors, says Saudi minister
• British visitors likely to drive UAE tourism recovery

“I’m a believer that Mecca and Medina are great base businesses, but we’ve never tapped into them,” Hamza Farooqui, founder and CEO of investment firm Millat Group, said. “People go there, pray and leave. No one has taken the time to improve the experiential [parts] of these cities. Today’s traveller wants a sense of experience.”

Riyadh’s approach to funding its large-scale projects is shifting. The Public Investment Fund, which oversees around $1 trillion in assets and has driven most of Vision 2030’s development spending, approved a new five-year strategy in April organising its investments into three portfolios.

Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan also announced a push to bring in more private and foreign capital, rather than funding large projects alone. The fund’s chairman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, signed off on the plan, which set out six priority sectors, including tourism and urban development.

That repositioning follows a run of cost overruns and delays across the giga-projects portfolio, with Neom among the highest-profile casualties of the recalibration.