My name is Wendy Perrin, I'm Conde Nast Traveler's Director of Consumer News and Digital Community, and I compile the magazine's annual List of Top Travel Specialists--the list to which you're referring. I started the List 13 years ago (because it was badly needed by CNT readers, who kept asking me who they should use to orchestrate various trips they needed to various parts of the world; the List was called "Wendy's Rolodex" for many years), and I've been handpicking the people on the List every year since. I'm astonished that any Conde Nast Traveler subscriber could actually think that a person can pay to be listed. That would defeat the entire purpose and value of the List. It would also be a gross journalistic conflict of interest. In the magazine I clearly state the methodology of how these travel specialists are chosen, and it's explained here too: http://www.cntraveler.com/travel-tip...el-specialists If anyone has any further questions about my methodology or how I find and road-test these people, I am happy to answer (my email: [email protected]; keep in mind that I may publish your question, along with my answer, on my blog at CondeNastTraveler.com). And if you have returned from a trip booked by one of the travel specialists, I hope you will post your feedback at the aforementioned link, where we've given each travel specialist a profile page where we send readers to post their reviews.