When entering a KidZania, the visitor does not have the feeling of entering a classic amusement park: no large open-air space, no roller coaster or even any merry-go-round. The place does not present itself as such, but under the concept of “interactive city for children”.
The twenty-eight KidZania parks in the world – the four pioneers were born in Mexico – are all located in shopping centers. And for good reason ! KidZania is, in reality, a mini-mall for children, or “a plastic village on two floors”as described in 2018 by the Mexican writer Juan Villoro in his book El Vertigo Horizontal. Una Ciudad Llamada Mexico (Almadia Editions, untranslated).
In this highly plasticized decor, the children play at working like adults in the commercial signs which have reproduced their shops, their logos, their products and even the uniforms of their employees identically. The Walmart supermarket is next to the McDonald’s fast food restaurant, the Nissan car manufacturer faces a Domino’s Pizza, and you enter it after passing through a window in the colors of Aeromexico. The airline issues the entrance ticket with points that can be exchanged at the Spanish bank BBVA for “Kidzo” tickets.
Only the Aerospace Center, Theater, Fire Station, Veterinary Clinic, and Police Station do not display a company name or logo on their windows. On the other hand, the Angeles hospital belongs to a private health group, the university is that of Anahuac, one of the most expensive faculties in the country, and the National Electoral Institute is indeed the official institution in charge of elections in Mexico.
“The KidZania concept is both educational and fun. Children come to our city to work and earn money. The goal is for them to understand life in society, what work and salary entail: every time you work, you earn money that you save, spend or can even donate to charities.explains Erasmo Rufrancos, one of the company’s spokespersons, who guides us through the world’s first KidZania, born in 1999 and still based in Santa Fe, northeast of Mexico City.
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KidZania legend says its founder, 59-year-old Mexican Xavier Ancona, came up with the idea when he was planning to start a simple daycare centre. More than twenty years later, KidZania are present in twenty-two countries on four continents (America, Africa, Asia and Europe) and six establishments are planned in Chicago (Illinois) in the United States, in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, in Johannesburg in South Africa, in Hanoi in Vietnam, in Singapore and in Hong Kong. The Mexican company does not publish its turnover, but it assures that it welcomes an average of nine million visitors a year to all its sites and works with more than a thousand companies from all over the world.
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