KidZania


KidZania is a Mexican privately held international chain of indoor family entertainment centers currently operating in 30 locations worldwide, allowing children to role play adult jobs and earn currency. It receives at least 9 million visitors per year.

Overview

Every KidZania is themed as a child-sized replica of a real city, including buildings, shops and theaters, as well as vehicles and pedestrians moving along its streets. In this city, children aged 4 through 14, work in branded activities from bottling Coca-Cola, working in a Crest-sponsored dentist office, working at a McDonald's restaurant, painting with Corporação Industrial do Norte, washing hands with P&G's Safeguard soap, and using airline tickets from American Airlines, Flydubai, Egyptair and Saudia.
The children earn kidZos while performing the tasks, and the money is kept in the KidZania bank for children to spend at the gift shop and on KidZania's activities. Inside every KidZania facility around the world, children wear electronic bracelets that allow parents to keep track of their kids remotely. The currency symbol for the kidZo is a capital letter Z with two horizontal strokes across the middle, which resembles the Ukrainian hryvnia sign but with sharp corners.
Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan owns a 26% share in KidZania India and helps promote the brand in India.

History

KidZania was created and developed by the Mexican entrepreneur Luis Javier Laresgoiti, alongside his business partner Xavier López Ancona, the current KidZania CEO. The first KidZania opened in September 1999 in Santa Fe Shopping Mall in Mexico City, and was named La Ciudad de los Niños. Corporate sponsors funded 55% of the initial investment. This was done as while the original plans were to be to generically name or give no name to the establishments, by then Lopez Ancona and Laresgoiti had exhausted their savings to fund construction, so they turned to having real world businesses sponsor the businesses in the city.
Shortly after the first center's successful opening, Luis Javier Laresgoiti and Xavier López Ancona became split on how to continue the business. In August 2001, it was announced that López would lead La Ciudad de los Niños and establish locations in California, Mexico, and Spain. Laresgoiti and his partner company Grupo Mágico would establish locations in Miami and South America, paying La Ciudad de los Niños 0.25% of the locations' revenue for the next 5 years. López's plans to open a Monterrey, Mexico location were postponed as he tried to establish Kids City locations at a Los Angeles mall and at the Palisades Center, both of which fell through. The Los Angeles location fell through because of difficulties involving the project itself, while the Palisades Center location was rejected by local voters because since it was to be labeled as a theme park, fears arose of issues such as traffic in the area.
Laresgoiti and Grupo Mágico, alongside the Mills Corporation, were able to begin construction on a center at Sawgrass Mills under a different brand, Wannado City, which opened in 2004. In 2003, La Ciudad de los Niños filed a lawsuit against Wannado Entertainment for infringing their intellectual property, and rejected Grupo Mágico's attempts to settle the lawsuit. Shortly after Wannado City opened, Wannado paid a settlement to La Ciudad de los Niños to end the lawsuit, and was forbidden from opening Wannado City locations in Mexico.
In 2006, La Ciudad de los Niños rebranded as KidZania to better suit itself for international expansion, and opened its second location in Monterrey. The following year, KidZania hired entertainment strategist Andrew Darrow as executive vice president. The same year would see KidZania's first international location in KidZania Tokyo. Cammie Dunaway, previously of Yahoo! and Nintendo, joined in late 2010 as the chief marketing officer.
KidZania at Westfield London, cost £20 million to build. In partnership with British Airways, it was operated by Joel Cadbury and Ollie Vigors through their Longshot Ltd company.

Controversies

KidZania faced criticism for continuing its operations in Russia despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. The company was listed on the "Leave Russia" project, which monitors businesses that remain active in the Russian market. Critics argue that KidZania’s continued presence in Russia indirectly supports the Russian economy, undermining international sanctions and efforts to pressure Russia during the conflict.

KidZania characters

The mascots of KidZania are called the RightZKeepers. According to the website's story, they represent the rights that all KidZania patrons have. Before Bekha's appearance back at 2017, they used to share an extra sixth right, the Right to Be.
The following are the mascots that KidZania has adopted over time:
  • Urbano : A nine-year-old, green-haired boy who is ingenious, inquisitive, and adventurous. He is interested in conducting experiments and making inventions.
  • Vita : Urbano's younger sister, a seven-year-old kind and thoughtful blue-haired girl who loves all living things.
  • Bache : Urbano and Vita's pet Blue hound dog. He loves to play, and has a huge appetite. His dream is to make sure every kid in the world is as happy as he is.
  • Beebop : Urbano's ten-year-old best friend. He is a huge fan of music and is very artistic. He has orange hair that covers his eyes, and wears a yellow shirt with a record design on it, a white long sleeved undershirt and headphones.
  • Chika : The fashionista of KidZania, a ten-year-old sociable and cheerful pink-haired girl who wears a headband with fake cat ears. She gets her inspiration from her favorite anime and manga characters.
  • Bekha : An eleven-year-old dark blue-haired girl, who, according to the story, shows the power to be self-determining, unique and free in harmony among humankind. This Right is grounded in the eternal idea of freedom: the power to act, speak and think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.