Saudi Arabia is looking to tap into the growing regional theme park industry with a new government-owned company set to build 24 parks across the kingdom in partnership with the private sector, said a report.

The initiative is part of efforts to boost tourism in the kingdom and create additional sources of revenue and jobs.

The new government company will develop and maintain the infrastructure for 19 parks in partnership with private sector while seven existing parks that lack basic infrastructure would be opened to private investments,  Arabic daily Al-Madina quoted Abdallah Al-Qarni, deputy director of Natural Resource Management at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture as saying.

The parks are expected to generate an estimated SAR130 billion ($34.6 billion) and draw 5.6 million visitors annually.

In the first phase, the company will identify investment sites and find investors for the projects.