Children roleplay real-world jobs – such as dentists and firemen – to earn kidZos, KidZania’s cuurency
Xavier López Ancona Founder and president KidZania
How did you come up with the KidZania concept?
KidZania came about from looking at the way children play and realising that they role-play. They imitate the lives of adults. There are 8 million children in Mexico – that’s where I’m from – and I saw this need for safe, fun, educational entertainment. No one was really doing a good job of delivering this. Creating role-play-based activities for children seemed obvious, and then we had the idea of building cities to take that role- play element to the next level.
How do you operate within the KidZania team? We have a big team and I get fairly involved. We have two operations managing the two sides of the business. Our non-franchised theme parks have a staff of about 2,000 and we have separate offices and a separate team of 120 people to support the franchises and our partners worldwide. They handle design, business intelligence, supervision, training – that kind of thing. Personally, I touch on all the areas. My personal favourite is content. My passion is
©CYBERTREK 2015 AM 3 2015
We doubled our initial attendance projections; we tripled the amount of interested partners; we doubled the price of entry in less than a year
Entrepreneur Xavier López Ancona opened the first KidZania in 1999
for designing the facilities, the architecture, the details. My focus is directed more on operations and the experience than the administrative side of things.
Why did you choose the franchise model for KidZania? When we opened the first KidZania in the Santa Fe Mall, Mexico City, in 1999, it was a much bigger success than we’d expected. We doubled our initial attendance projections; we tripled the amount of interested partners; we doubled the price of entry in less than a year because it was
so successful. We wanted to bring KidZania to more children as rapidly as possible. A franchise model was the best way to make this happen, allowing us to look for local partners in new markets.
How to do you select franchisees? First, there has to be chemistry. Second, it has to be a business that does good in the community. We’re committed to making money, but we’re also committed to being educational. Our partners have to share these values. They have to have the right resources, management and team. We like people from the hospitality industry who have great customer experience records. With Joel Cadbury, CEO at our newest franchise, KidZania London, it was check, check, check. He’s a great partner for us.
attractionsmanagement.com 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104