Unique initiatives for future rural development: culture-uncommon thematic villages in Lithuania

The expanding possibilities for a better quality of life increasingly accelerate the demand for various unique and uncommon services. The expansion of services had been recently spectated in all sectors and spheres of human activity. The impacts of these changes become evident both in cities and the countryside. The increased requirements and demand for the variety of services in rural areas, at the same time, raised the value of unique cultural resources, specific regions. However, creative innovators found new ways of using unique cultural resources in geographically distanced regions by establishing cultureuncommon thematic villages, which have the potential to mature into unique self-organized business models. This paper aims to explain the potential of using unique cultural resources in culture-uncommon environments for future regional development in the EU on the example of thematic villages. Based on a case study, performed in Lithuania in 2018, this research gives evidence of a successful initiative, developed by using cultural uniqueness in the culture-uncommon environment. Research results reveal that creative application of cultural uniqueness in the particular environment might add to the development of rural region both in the economic and social sense. Culture-uncommon thematic villages hold potential to grow till fully mature self-organized business models and expand with the social and economic impact on the particular region’s development. Therefore, it is suggested to focus on fostering the use of unique cultural resources in the EU CAP support schemes 2020+ next to the aims of making the EU agricultures equally developed by all indicators in all of the EU regions.