Our view on travel top 100 lists

Just how valuable are travel top 100 lists? It is very difficult to visit a news website, open a magazine or turn on the television without quickly coming across yet another: the top 100 views, the top 100 restaurants, the top 100 luxury hotels and even more obscure ones. They are so prevalent that I am soon planning to compile a list of the 100 best top 100 lists.

But joking aside, the reason they are so prevalent is that they are undeniably popular. When working on The Times’ online travel section, we would receive an update from the boss (a certain Steve Keenan, who also blogs here) showing which had been the most popular stories that week. It was always fascinating and depressing in equal measure. You picked up nuggets real insight on what readers were interested in – Sex ban on the Airbus A380 was a soaraway favourite among readers back in 2007. But what was evident was the enormous appetite for top 50 and top 100 lists. This caused much despair to old school travel writers who liked nothing better than being sent off to a glamorous and expensive resort to dash off 800 words about ‘what they did on their holiday’ – compiling a top 100 list takes a lot of work, often sitting at a desk rather than on a sun lounger.

The world of social media is no exception when it comes to top 100s.

Lists of the top 100 travel bloggers are very popular – Travelpod, Brendan’s Adventures, Washington Flyer, Touropia are just a handful of the very, very many out there.

Social media agencies have also realised the value of top 100 lists in generating traffic to their sites. Social agency Headstream has just published its Social Brands 100 list. There are other similar lists out there (of course) and it does not deal only with travel.

In social media lists, the fascinating thing to do is look at methodology. Earlier in the year, Headstream compiled a 300-strong longlist of brands by seeking nominations via Twitter. The company then analysed the interactions between those brands and their fans and followers on “Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, brand owned forums, Foursquare”.

So who made their list? It is an eclectic list to say the least and includes the likes of Marmite and Manchester City FC. From the world of travel, you find – among others - Chiltern Railways, KLM and Mr & Mrs Smith.

The list contains some these are obvious social media leaders and some more unlikely choices. But this unusual mix goes straight to the heart of the appeal of top 100 lists. Everyone has their own opinion and if their favourite hotel, travel blogger or social media brand does not appear, they want to know why and say so, helping to create a buzz. I’m doing it now by talking about the Headstream list. Clever eh?