Exclusive | Real life learning for your kids: KidZania's Sanjeev Kumar

Kid of age group 4-14 years and their parent who are looking at giving some real life experiences and learning to their kids can now rejoice. Very soon KidZania, the world's fastest-growing edutainment brand will soon be opening doors in India. It is an edutainment indoor theme park scaled and built specially for kids. Says Sanjeev Kumar, Director  & CEO, KidZania India, “we are here to improve the life of the children, to create an interest in learning about the world and what it is all about. We want to ensure that their minds are open and they can become better citizens by imbibing good value.” 

 

Headquartered in Mexico, KidZania was founded in Mexico City in 1996 by a young entrepreneur, Xavier Lopez, who dreamed of creating a place where kids could have fun while enjoying real life experiences. KidZania believes that kids can make a difference and it is its mission to provide an environment that empowers them to explore, challenge themselves and open their minds to new experiences. “ It is all about real life experiences, empowering, inspiring, and educating kids through role play. The KidZania experience is designed to remind kids that life is about options, and to reach as high as possible.  It embraces the children’s diversity with an expansive vision and gives them a shared way of thinking & collective passion about their beliefs, hopes and dreams. This makes KidZania a unique educational city which stimulates creative thinking, boosts self-esteem and self-confidence levels. By blending reality with entertainment, KidZania provides an authentic and powerful developmental experience, preparing kids to understand and manage their world” adds Hernan Barbieri, Global Integration Director, KidZania Mexico. 

 

The company plans to open its first centre at R Mall in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India. KidZania will be located on the 3rd & 4th level in Mumbai's largest mall R City, LBS Marg. It is spread across 75,000 sq. ft. with 60+ establishments and 75+ role-playing options for kids.  The Mumbai centre is expected to have its soft launch by early 2013 and be fully operational by summer 2013. 

 

Says Viraj Singh, chief marketing officer, KaidZania India, the selection of location is based on a lot of research and global benchmarks. We look at 7-9 lakhs footfalls in a year where we build KidZania.” On the pricing front, Viraj said, “it will be a differential pricing in the range of Rs 700-900 per child for an activity of 8-9 hours on weekdays and for an activity of 4-5 hours on weekends. The pricing has been kept competitive to ensure that we can target a cross section of clients including the schools and also provide a similar experience for the under-privileged kids by working with the NGOs.” 

 

KidZania provides children and their parents a safe, unique, and very realistic educational environment. KidZania creates a kid-centric city experience for 4 -14 year olds by combining role play with fun and learning, where kids have an authentic & powerful development experience-wrapped in awe inspiring fun careers, and recreational activities. At KidZania, the kids can be fire-fighters, journalists, bankers, doctors and much more in any one of the authentic role playing activities across establishments. Kids don‘t just role-play careers; they earn kidZos (KidZania's official currency), learn how to manage money (open a bank account, encash cheques), and purchase goods and services. Kids learn through experience about different professions, how a city works, financial literacy, local government, care for environment, and how to work both independently and as a team. Kids also get paid for the working in the establishments in kidZos. 

 

Says Sanjeev Kumar, “in providing real life experience to the kids we work very closely with the partners on long-term basis. Internationally the group works with 548 partners to build activity for the kids.” It was a tough job to go an approach the brands when the company first launched its operations and the first KidZania city in Mexico City but “fortunately we have been able to find support from many brands, forge long-term partnerships and win trust,” says Hernan Barbieri.   

 

Currently KidZania has presence in 10 countries like Mexico, Japan, Portugal, S, Dubai and Malaysia, South Korea. It is looking at opening 12 more KidZania’s in Chile, Brazil, UK, Germany, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, USA and Thailand by 2014. Adds Hernan Barbieri, “ we expect to spread all over the world through the franchise route, typical investment is $ 15-30 million per city." We prefer to work with the local partner who knows the local intricacies better.”

 

After Mumbai, the company next targets New Delhi and going forward, “we will be present in every city with a population of 10 million in India in the years to come,” says Sanjeev Kumar. So wait for the real life experience to begin till then.