Sunshine.co.uk's list of Top 50 Online Travel Meeja is too traditional

What a shame.

These things are always subjective, and I don't want to be overly critical because this is not at all a bad attempt to list the most influential online journalists & bloggers, but there are just too many of the former and not enough of the latter.

On Tuesday, Sunshine published its list of the "Top 50 Travel Journalists and Bloggers to follow on Twitter" on its blog.

Their declared method for assessing who should be in the list was: "a combination of Klout, Peer Index and a sprinkling of fairy dust" - which sounds a pretty good formula to me, and indeed, as I just said, has resulted in a really useful list. I would concur with about 85% of it.

You can hear the "but" coming.

The trouble is, this list feels like one that had to be supplemented. I'm guessing the author started with less than 50 and had to make it up, rather than starting with over 50 and having to whittle them down, and he/she might know traditional trade & consumer travel joggers* but isn't too 'au fait' with the world of travel blogging.

I'm delighted to see Darren Cronian in there, but then he is probably the UK's best-known travel blogger. He is the equivalent of inserting just Jonny Wilkinson with the likes of Gerard, Rooney, Wilshere, Crouch, Bent, Defoe, etc in a list of the "Top 50 England Football & Rugby Players" put together by a football fan.

For the cognescenti, Darren isn't the only uk-based travel blogger of note. For example, the author wouldn't need to use much fairy dust on some of these:

• Andy Jarosz (501places.co.uk) Klout: 66 Twitter Followers: 7,043
• Kash Bhattacharya (www.Europebudgetguide.com) Klout: 62 Twitter Followers: 3,937
• Karen Bryan (www.europealacarte) Klout: 61 Twitter Followers: 4,454
• Tom Mcloughlin (www.backpackingtraveldestinations.co.uk) Klout: 46 Twitter Followers 2,099
• Matt Preston (www.travelwithamate.com)Klout: 61 Twitter Followers: 3,571
• Jools Stone (www.trainsonthebrain.com) Klout: 56 Twitter Followers: 1,947

And these are just some bloggers who, unlike some on the Sunshine list, actually reside in the UK when not travelling. EasyJet have just published a list with some of the other non-UK residential top bloggers, and so has Yucatan Travel.

Anyway. No matter. It's not important in the scheme of things. I'm not saying some people shouldn't be in the list. I'm just disappointed that it doesn't recognise some people who most certainly should be in the list, and I wouldn't even have blogged on it ... if Sunshine.co.uk hadn't decided not to publish my comment pointing out the list's shortcomings.

*Joggers. Name invented by Gosh PR's MD Dru Bryan for 'journalists who blog' (but destined, I fear, only to confuse!)