Blair Drummond Safari Park

Reawakening a Scottish icon – Case Study

Introduction

For generations, Blair Drummond Safari Park has occupied a special place in Scotland’s tourism landscape. Set within 120 acres of beautiful countryside near Stirling, the park combines wildlife, adventure, education, and family entertainment in a destination unlike any other.

Yet even established attractions can lose momentum. As visitor expectations evolve and competition intensifies, heritage alone is rarely enough to maintain market leadership.

Blair Drummond’s owners recognised the need to re-establish the park’s position as one of Scotland’s premier family visitor attractions. They required more than a marketing campaign; they needed a comprehensive transformation of the visitor experience itself.

To achieve this, they turned to IDEAS.

Under the creative direction of Don Jack, IDEAS embarked on a substantial placemaking and destination development programme that would touch virtually every aspect of the park’s public-facing identity and guest experience.

The Challenge

Blair Drummond already possessed the essential ingredients of a successful attraction: an impressive animal collection, expansive grounds, strong brand recognition, and a loyal audience.

The challenge was perception.

Many areas of the park had evolved incrementally over time, resulting in a visitor experience that lacked consistency, cohesion, and the sense of immersion increasingly expected by modern family audiences.

The objective was clear: reposition Blair Drummond as a leading Scottish tourism destination by creating a more engaging, memorable, and emotionally connected visitor experience.

This required a complete review of how guests encountered, navigated, experienced, and remembered the park.

Our Intervention

Under Don Jack’s creative leadership, IDEAS undertook a comprehensive placemaking programme designed to elevate every aspect of the visitor journey.

Working closely with the park’s management team, IDEAS developed a strategy that combined destination branding, environmental design, storytelling, and practical visitor engagement.

The project encompassed:

Brand redevelopment – refreshing the park’s visual identity and strengthening its market positioning.

Destination placemaking – creating a more immersive and coherent experience throughout the site.

Attraction enhancement – redesigning key visitor areas to improve visual appeal and audience engagement.

Food and hospitality environments – transforming catering and dining spaces into more welcoming and family-friendly destinations in their own right.

Signage and wayfinding systems – improving navigation while reinforcing the park’s character and personality.

Theming and environmental storytelling – introducing props, visual elements, and experiential touchpoints that encouraged exploration and discovery.

Project management and delivery – overseeing the implementation of design concepts across multiple areas of the attraction.

Drawing inspiration from the world’s most successful visitor destinations, the creative approach focused on creating a more polished, recognisable, and emotionally engaging experience for families. Every touchpoint was considered as part of a larger narrative designed to increase enjoyment, dwell time, and repeat visitation.

Campaign & Strategy

IDEAS understood that successful attractions are not simply collections of exhibits; they are experiences that begin long before guests arrive and continue long after they leave.

Alongside the physical transformation of the park, IDEAS developed and delivered an integrated communications strategy designed to reinforce Blair Drummond’s renewed position within Scotland’s tourism sector.

The campaign combined:

Destination branding that celebrated the park’s unique mix of wildlife, adventure, and family entertainment.

Media advertising across regional and national channels to drive awareness and visitation.

Consistent visual communications across print, outdoor, and promotional materials.

Experience-led messaging focused on creating anticipation and encouraging family visits.

On-site storytelling and environmental design that ensured visitor expectations matched the experience delivered.

The result was a unified destination identity that strengthened both visitor perception and market visibility.

What We Delivered

Results & Legacy

The transformation delivered immediate and measurable results.

During the first full season following the redevelopment programme, visitor demand increased dramatically, attracting unprecedented levels of attendance and public interest.

Traffic volumes became so significant that television news crews reported on the daily queues of visitors travelling to the attraction — a highly visible demonstration of the park’s renewed popularity and public appeal.

More importantly, Blair Drummond successfully re-established itself as one of Scotland’s leading family visitor destinations.

By aligning brand, environment, communications, and guest experience under a single creative vision, IDEAS helped transform the park from a much-loved attraction into a more immersive, contemporary, and commercially successful destination.

The project remains a powerful example of placemaking in action — demonstrating how strategic design, storytelling, and experience-led thinking can revitalise established attractions, strengthen visitor loyalty, and unlock new levels of growth.

For IDEAS, it was never simply about redesigning a safari park.

It was about helping a destination rediscover its sense of wonder.

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