Chris Elliott's List of Top Travel Blogs

Christopher Elliott, whom I would definitely list among the top travel bloggers, published 'The 7 Most Influential Travel Bloggers of 2007.' Here's his list, but you need to click on his blog to find out why he selected them:

Mark Ashley's Upgrade: Travel Better
Paul Brady's Jaunted
Arthur Frommer's Frommers
Holly Hegeman's PlaneBuzz
Wendy Perrin's Perrin Post
Ben Popken's Consumerist (travel being just of the consumer issues Popken and his team cover)
Rick Seaney's Rick Seaney

Elliott then went on to name these 7 rising stars with growing influence:

Delta Airlines' own corporate blog
Joe Brancatelli's Summer of Our Discontent (Brancatelli also maintains Joe Sent Me, which IMHO is a better name for a travel site or blog from a guy named Joe.)
Peter Greenberg's PeterGreenberg
Jeanne LeBlanc's Coach Class
National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel
Bill Marriott's Marriott on the Move
Southwest Airlines' Nuts About Southwest

I am totally confident (wink! wink!) that if Elliott had assembled a list of the 7 up-and-comers right behind the 7 rising stars that are right behind the 7 influentials, Travel-Babel would be on it, right Chris? After all, I'm an individual without a paycheck or a regular gig from the likes of the National Geographic Society, Conde-Nast, Marriott Hotels, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, the Hartford Courant, 'The Today Show,' etc. -- though influence and reliable (and presumably sizable) checks certainly are not mutually exclusive. Far from it. My only regular gig is providing ski content to frommers.com, and trust me when I tell you that's not a high-paying outlet.

In my own modest, individual way, I think I'm right at the threshold of the influentials. I believe that Travel-Babel was the first with a post about Bill Marriott's blog, less than two months after he launched it. Even though I don't usually write about cruise ships or the Caribbean, I sounded a fairly early alarm about Windjammer Barefoot Cruises' problems and later wrote about their eventual meltdown. Travel-Babel was one of the few travel blogs to report on the accident and eventual sinking of the "Explorer" during an Antarctic cruise just last week. I tried to sort out the conflicting early reports that came from wire services and mainstream online media.

I could perhaps do more if I focused on just one thing, but I don't. In addition to Travel-Babel (which includes destination reports as well as travel news and consumer issues), I maintain blogs on Colorado-centric (but not Colorado exclusive) culinary/food topics and one on Nordic Walking, an increasingly popular form of fitness walking with poles. And oh yes, I do write books and magazine articles. Perhaps I'd be more influential if I weren't spreading myself and my words so thin. With 14 more influential blogs to follow, I'm probably going to be spreading myself even thinner.