ATTRACTIONS
Maged Al Naggar Governor
KidZania Jeddah
What’s your experience and current role? I’ve worked in the industry for 17 years, owning and operating amusement parks, FECs and edutainment centres in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I joined this company in December 2014 and we’ve been operating KidZania Jeddah for six months.
How have initial visitor numbers been? So far we’ve had 150,000 visitors, averaging 30,000 visitors a month.
What is the educational value of KidZania?
KidZania is a great concept, which works especially well in Saudi Arabia, which is a very special market. KidZania educates children and equips them with some of the necessary tools to help them make plans for their future. It’s an interactive experience and it’s something different. At KidZania in Saudi Arabia, the educational benefits aren’t only felt by the
children, but also by the staff. Our KidZania is 100 per cent run by women, 90 per cent of whom are Saudi. It’s a unique platform for Saudi women to join the workforce. In this country, women typically stay at home and don’t have jobs available to them. At KidZania we’re giving women the opportunity to work. The value of KidZania Jeddah may be more than in other markets because the opportunities for women are slim. It’s also the only place in Saudi Arabia where women are legally allowed to drive.
What’s the typical visitor experience? Saudi families used to drop off their kids and go off somewhere, but at KidZania
KidZania Jeddah is a unique platform for Saudi women to join the workforce. We’re giving women the opportunity to work
they really like to stay. Families enjoy the experience together. A typical experience lasts between six and seven hours.
Does KidZania reflect Jeddah? Yes. We changed the city to match local traditions and we changed the uniforms to match what you’re used to in Jeddah. We co-operated with the government to match local regulations and customs.
Who is your target audience? We target both local and international visitors and provide everything in both Arabic and English. About 800 children visit from schools on a daily basis.
Carlos Cárdenas Experience director KidZania
What’s your role at KidZania? KidZania is like a nation and we’re the central government, which is divided into different ministries. I’m the Minister of Culture, so I’m the experience director in charge of all the creative areas of KidZania. The five areas are architecture, theming, content, graphic design and multimedia.
What’s your background? I’ve worked here since the beginning. I started with the company 16 years ago. I have moved up the ladder, from graphic designer to theming and then now to creative director of these arts.
Does the design change for each country? It’s a big challenge. Every time we start a new KidZania we need to address cultural stylings and learn different ways of working. We try to localise the content so we want to
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worked with different theming companies, but it changes according to the location.
What challenges do you face working with brands? There certainly can be challenges. Some brands know what they want to reflect to visitors. With a brand like British Airways, for example, it’s easy because it’s a worldwide brand that’s very well known. Domestic brands can be much less known, so we need to do a lot of research.
reference local elements and reflect those in the project. On the other hand, KidZania has its own personality so we need to keep that intact. When we reference the local culture, like a building or cityscape, we stay under the KidZania banner.
Do you work with local architects or designers? We receive feedback from our local partners about the cultural elements they feel it’s important to include. We work in parallel with local builders and the local design team. In terms of the architect, we have
Where is everything made and who makes it?
KidZania is 60 per cent smaller than the real world. Everything from the buildings to the vehicles to the materials is scaled down. It’s sometimes difficult to find the right elements so some pieces are customised – and you’d be surprised what you can find on the open market for small props. Our “key materials” come from Mexico. It’s a requirement that the franchises take the key materials from us as this ensures we’re able to maintain our concept across all KidZanias and maintain the brand’s high standards globally. l
AM 3 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015
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