Although heritage and its preservation have long been regarded as oppositional to economic development, they
are now increasingly seen as effective partners in the development (see Loulanski, 2006). Apart from the
anthropological notion of culture, there has been less attention devoted to the functional interpretation of culture, i.
e. the analysis of how cultural production and the valorization of cultural resources may foster economic
development (Saccone and Bertacchini, 2011). Since not all heritage necessarily bears developmental potential,
cultural values with developmental potential have been defined as follows to facilitate a better understanding of the
terms: “Cultural values are various tangible and intangible elements and individual natural elements of cultural
significance and local origin that are identified by the stakeholders and have economic, social, ecological, or cultural
developmental potential. The developmental importance of a specific cultural value co-depends on the utility,
compatibility, and the scope of developmental potential« (Šmid Hribar et al., 2012, 19).