When summer holidays come, children have free time on their hands but parents see very few opportunities for physical activites and play areas during the hot summer days.
In Qatar, however, the ongoing Summer Entertainment City (SEC) at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC) is one place where both kids and adults find different opportunities to have quality leisure time.
The summer city, organised by QSports, offers a variety of activities for the family starting from shopping area, food market, kids’ playing areas and cultural shows. The main areas of the SEC 2019 include amusement rides, skills games with prizes, bespoke trampoline park, a kids driving school setup, giant blocks park for kids to play and build with large lego-type blocks, a 1,000sqm ocean ball soft play area, Qatar’s first Inflatable Park spread over 1,200sqm, world’s largest bounce castle, a 1,200sqm skate park, synthetic ice skating, Spider Climbing tower and over 45 food options and 100 retail outlets.
However, the major attraction for the children is the Inflatable Park where if an active kids enters, he or she would not want to leave the area. This is first of its kind playing facility for kids available at the SEC in Qatar. This park is in addition to a very large bouncy castle that was also introduced by the SEC organisers last year for the first time in Qatar.
Qazi Yousri, Media Manager at QSports, talking to Community, said: “We have multiple facilities at the 3rd edition of the SEC but the Inflatable Park has been proving to be the most attractive, alongside the bouncy castle. The park is the only and the largest playing facility of its kind in Qatar so far.
“It is actually a 50 metre-long track full of obstacle along with some playing areas, rides and slides for the children. We allow the children up to 12-year-old only. We, however, allow one parent, maids and nannies to take care of the younger children. The park can accommodate about 100 children at one time.’ The QSports representative further said: “The part includes taller than normal slides, hurdles, climbing walls, jumping areas, tunnels and other playing areas.”
When asked how the park is different from the bouncy castle, he said: “The park is actually a kind of challenge run for the kids. The older kids tend to compete each other running through the hurdles and challenges with stopwatch. The bouncy castle, on the other hand, only carries rides and playing areas. There is no challenge for the kids in the castle. The kids and youngsters jump and bounce in the castle playing different games, including basketball, maze running, slides, climbing walls, and playing with big inflated balls.”
Abdulrahman Bachir, a Palestinian expatriate, was present with his family at the SEC. His two kids just came out of the Inflatable Park ares. The kids were really sweating when they came out.
“I have been waiting out for over 40 minutes. Two my boys were not ready to leave the park as they had a lot of things to do and a lot of rides to enjoy. It is indoor and has cool temperature. As parents, we are carefree when the kids are inside the park. The park is inflatable and there is no chance of getting injured lest the kids collide with each other.”
He added: “First of all, it is great to have such a big kind of indoor festival like SEC. And in SEC, it is good to have Inflatable Park and castle for the children. These facilities provide some sort of physical activity to the children who remained glued to smart phone or tablet screens when they have to remain in door during the hot summer days. Nowadays we have to push kids for physical activities and sports.
For young kids less than 10-year-old, it is good to have the inflatable facilities where they can have some physical activities.”
FAMILY FUN: The summer city, organised by QSports, offers a variety of activities for the family starting from shopping area, food market, kids’ playing areas and cultural shows.
