The principal aim of this paper is to establish a Cultural Route Evaluation Model (CREM) to better assess the importance of cultural routes for tourism development taking into account both heritage values and economic impacts. This model is applied to ‘The trail of the Roman Emperors’ in Serbia. This application is based on two groups of values — the ‘main values’ namely scientific, route-specific, economic, and protection and conservation Values, and secondly additional values. It is found that not all values contribute equally to the final assessment score, but the CREM model and the related matrix visually highlight current and potential values of the trail, thereby permitting management to devise policies that would enable the trail to better achieve its purposes. •The CREM model provides a multi-perspective view of the importance of cultural routes for tourism development.•This model emphasizes the fact that not all subindicators should have the same influence in the evaluation process.•The CREM matrix visually presents both the current state as well as the potential future state of the analyzed route.