KidZania – the educational attraction for kids that allows them to experience simulations of real-life jobs – is planning an additional two sites in the UK to the one already planned this year for London.
The Mexico-based children's edutainment brand is set to open in early 2015 at the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush, London as part of a £40m (US$64.5m, €50.8m) investment to create a 75,000sq ft (6,967sq m) mini-city in which children will be able to play the roles of more than 60 professions – including fireman, pilot, police officer and TV presenter.
For the London opening, KidZania has signed a license agreement with Longshot Kids – a company led by entrepreneurs Ollie Vigors and Joel Cadbury – who said their eye isn’t just on London.
“This is the first and in its first year we think we will have 750,000 visitors, growing to one million a year over a five-year period,” said Cadbury speaking to
The Telegraph.
“The second one will be in east London. For the third opportunity in the UK, we will look between Birmingham and Manchester.”
London is set to join the rapid expansion of KidZania franchises, which includes locations such as
Singapore,
Istanbul,
Indiaand
Mexico City.
