Ribbon-cutting ceremony for KidZania Singapore Opening (left) Tunki Dato’ Ahmad Burhanuddin, CEO of Themed Attractions Resorts & Hotels, (right) Mr. Xavier Lopez Ancona, President and CEO of KidZania. (Image via:  RainbowDiaries.com)

Even though the year is barely starting, 2017 is set to be a period of many big milestones for KidZania. Given this, Xavier Lopez was interviewed by Mexican media, where he gave a great scope of what everyone can expect from KidZania in 2017, future plans for the company and more.

As KidZania is planning the opening of the first facility in the US in 2018, Publimetro got the chance to talk with Mr. Xavier Lopez about the plans for KidZania in the coming future. Here’s an excerpt of the interview that was featured on their printed edition of January 20th, 2017:

On taking KidZania to the US…

“We have a better infrastructure, we have presence already in 19 countries: Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, Portugal, UAE, South Korea, Malaysia, Chile, Thailand, Kuwait, India, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, UK, Philippines, Russia and Singapore. We’re even exporting Mexican talent that can respond at our franchisees partner’s necessities”.

On a Mexican company arriving to the US…

“I feel really proud about it, especially in situations like the arrival of Donald Trump, I think that KidZania has a lot of good things, a good example of a Mexican company that is growing abroad and not only in traditional markets like Central and South America or US like 99% of the companies, hopefully we can become an example to show that there are other markets overseas”.

On targeting new markets…

“We have several facilities under construction that will open their doors in the next two years: Doha in Qatar, Paris in France, Johannesburg in South Africa and we’re going to Guadalajara in Mexico”.

Likewise, in an interview with Carlos Mota for El Financiero, Xavier Lopez gave further details on future openings in the US:

“[KidZania Houston] is set to open by the second half of 2018. Almost simultaneously we’ll start the construction in Oakbrook Center (…) in Chicago’s suburbs. At the same time (we’re evaluating) a third location in a new development at East Rutherford, New Jersey, West Manhattan, with which we’re planning to enter New York’s market”.

Also KidZania is under development of a brand new concept known as KinesiZ, the result of visiting “almost 250 entertainment properties (museums, zoos, live shows, regional and world expos, theme parks, aquariums, botanical gardens, themed hotels, restaurants, retail…) in 42 cities from 26 countries. We also interviewed around 1,500 persons across the world”. KinesiZ is KidZania’s bet to group “multiple adventure/adrenaline experiences”.

On what we can expect for KidZania Guadalajara…

“In KidZania Guadalajara –and each of the future facilities that we open in the coming years– we’ll implement all the learnings that we gathered during these years of visits, interviews, the worst and best practices of every entertainment player in the world”.

Here’s to a successful 2017, and be sure that we’ll be reporting every major milestone for KidZania in the world.