World Heritage sites (WHS) are often regarded as preservation projects aimed at preserving valuable natural and cultural heritage. Lately these sites have been re-evaluated as being important arenas for experience based production. This development raises important questions regarding the commodification process of heritage. Planners need to decide what artefacts, milieus and stories to include and decide how they should be related to each other in a meaningful way. These processes are complex and involve stakeholders from different planning organizations. 

The study utilises an example from destination development connected to the WHS in Falun, Sweden. Preliminary results show that initial focus in the establishing phase of the WHS has been driven by preservation goals. This focus has often leads to the hampering of commercial initiatives. Experience based products are always dependent on strong interpretation. The interpretation has to be done in a way to connect the visitor in sensuous and imaginative ways to the heritage. This has not been in the innitial  focus of the development in this particular case. One of the reasons for this lies in the criteria set up by UNESCO, which focuses on preservation and education. In a situation where preservation prevail there is often no space left to incorporate tourism industry’s concerns.