Fawaz Alhokair Group launches the first KidZania city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia. KidZania Journal. July 24, 2012. (English). Fawaz Alhokair Group celebrated today the launching event of KidZania Jeddah, the first KidZania city in Saudi Arabia that will be located at the Mall of Arabia in this city. The event witnessed the presence of a large number of businessmen, media and KidZania Jeddah’s industry partners.
KidZania is the world’s fastest-growing edutainment brand that provides children a safe, unique, and very realistic educational environment that allows kids 4 to 14 to do what comes naturally to them: role-playing by mimicking traditionally “adult” activities. As in the real world, children perform “jobs” and are either paid for their work (as a fireman, doctor, police officer, journalist, shopkeeper, etc.) or pay to shop or to be entertained. The indoor theme park is a city built to scale for children, complete with buildings, paved streets, vehicles, a functioning economy, and recognizable destinations in the form of “establishments” sponsored and branded by leading multi-national and local brands.
KidZania offers as many as 100 role-playing activities at more than 60 establishments with a range of difficulty levels to meet the abilities and interests of each child. Kids can choose to pay for goods and services with KidZania’s own currency or they can choose to work. Pilots navigate airplanes, TV anchors read the news, police officers perform detective work, and pizza chefs make tasty food. KidZania is a city just for kids, complete with a hospital, fire station, beauty salon, bank, radio station, supermarket, television station, pizzeria and theatre.
Kids are paid for their work in kidZos, the official currency of KidZania. Recognized at every KidZania location throughout the world, kidZos are used to buy products and services. The more children work, the more they earn, the more they can do. Personal experience is a powerful learning tool. At KidZania, children learn about society through work and activities. As kids build on their experience, they develop independence, social skills and a sense of monetary value. At the same time, children learn valuable lessons associated with each substantive occupation as the KidZania experience is designed to reflect school curricula around the world.
Commercial partners provide key realism to KidZania by branding each establishment inside KidZania with products, processes and technologies. KidZania offers children a 5-hour experience so parents have plenty of time to shop and spend. KidZania’s state-of-the-art security system is designed to allow and encourage parents to leave their children safely at KidZania while they take some time of their own to shop or eat.
KidZania’s record breaking success and unique focus on “edutainment” has certainly not gone unnoticed, as reflected by its receipt of numerous awards, most recently voted the World’s Top Family Entertainment Center by IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions), Best New Theme Park (Themed Entertainment Association), Global Leisure Operator of the Year by RLI and Concept of the Year (MAPIC).
Mr. Fawaz Alhokair, Chief Executive Officer at Al Hokair Group said: “We are delighted to be launching the first branch of KidZania in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in order to develop our society. This is just the beginning; we look forward to establish more branches around Saudi Arabia for the interest on all of our sons and our daughters”. He added “after the great success achieved by KidZania around the world we decided to bring this wonderful experience to Saudi society”.
It is worth mentioning that KidZania first opened in Mexico City in 1999, and in 2006 opened new cities in Tokyo and Monterrey. KidZania Jakarta opened in 2007 to great success and record breaking crowds, in 2009 opened new branches in Osaka and Lisbon. In 2010 new locations have opened in Seoul and Dubai. New locations are also being built or in development in Mumbai, Bangkok, Santiago, Istanbul, Shanghai, Cairo, São Paulo, Singapore, Moscow, Kuwait, and Kuala Lumpur and negotiations are in process for many additional countries.
