Editorial: Connecting cultures and continents: the heritage of routes and journeys

This article introduces the concept of heritage routes, one of four categories of world heritage established to date. It presents the author's observation as a longstanding member of the ICOMOS International Committee on Cultural Routes (CIIC), providing critical perspectives on the concept itself and how we are moving forward on understanding the diverse aspects of cultural routes in different cultural and regional contexts. It also considers the issues and challenges of working with this type of heritage, both globally and in Australian heritage practice, which are elaborated in the articles that follow. Recent research trends are analysed, and potential areas of future research identified.