This paper focuses on the management of an industrial heritage site in Sweden, which local stakeholders and heritage planners have claimed to be successful. This status of excellence is investigated in relation to the general, county-wide applied heritage planning. The results show that key factors for successful management of the industrial heritage site are not related only to conservation work, but also to personal engagement, sense of responsibility, and well-being among participants. However, heritage planners generally lack methods to address immaterial values and socio-economic benefits of engaging in heritage activities, resulting in a separation between physical and communal aspects of heritage planning. The results highlight the issue of professional legitimacy and the challenges for heritage planners to address regional policy objectives, such as finding ways to utilise historic landscapes in destination-driven strategies and to simultaneously support civil engagement in heritage-related issues. © 2017 Landscape Research Group Ltd