DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRY IN EUROPE AND THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Relevant scientific knowledge on the development of the creative industry confirms that culture increasingly follows economic and industrial models, which is confirmed by secondary data measuring the contribution of creative sectors through the prism of GDP, employment, innovation, but also the level o f consumption of cultural goods and products and services based on creativity. The paper describes the creative industry development in several European countries, analyzing and explaining the terms such as creative industry, cultural industry, and cultural economy. The development and organization of the creative industry in the Republic of Croatia is discussed, emphasizing the mapping of the creative industry, which was first published in 2015. With this mapping, a division into 12 sectors is proposed. Creative industry theorists and practitioners respect that. Furthermore, the position of the creative industry and the business assumptions of its 12 sectors in the Republic of Croatia are analyzed concerning the legal framework governing business activities in the creative industry, and especially concerning the National Classification of Activities (NCA), as a fundamental act for classifying activities in the Republic of Croatia. As the Heritage sector is one of the creative industry sectors, the paper comments that the nomenclature of activities from the NCA does not contain activities that would standardize the Heritage sector in all its definitions such as legal framework, conditions, and assumptions for its business activities. With such an approach, cultural heritage as the source of cultural activities is not economically seduced in eco-nomic activities such as tourism. Thus, its resource is not valued by measur- able economic indicators. Therefore, the highlight of the paper is to show that, without a clear, organized, and modern legal framework for doing business in the Heritage sector (as a part of the creative industry), the business potential o f the heritage as an economic resource, would not be adequately utilized or could even be lost.