If you monitor the efforts of Orbitz and Expedia on Facebook, then you'd have to conclude that travelers are demanding lots of celebrity gossip and contests.
Both online travel agencies are following the formula.
Orbitz announced today that it redesigned its Facebook page and it now features an Are You in the Know page? and a Fans Fly Free giveaway.
The Are You in the Know? page is chock full of celebrity hoopla and emphasizes interactivity with polls and questions for friends.
One poll asks: "Which celebrity would you take on vacation with you?" Your choices are Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Stewart, Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie.
Then, an all-important question is posed: "What movies make you want to go on vacation?" And you can post an answer.
Of course, if your celebrity appetite is still not satiated, then the page's Know Where to Go feature lists the "Top 5 celebrity hotels and affordable alternatives."
And, below the celebrity hotels, Orbitz displays a link to its Fans Fly Free pages, featuring 10 daily giveaways of free airfare to Las Vegas if you book an MGM Resort stay on Orbitz.com.
Meanwhile, Expedia must be reading from the same Facebook playbook.
Expedia issued a press release today announcing "the results to date" of polls of Facebook fans asking them such earth-shattering questions as which celebrity would be their least favorite travel companion [Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi was winning at press time] and who would be their favorite late-night host travel companion [Chelsea Handler was in the lead].
All of these Expedia poll questions were geared to promote its ongoing Expedia FriendTrips $1 million in travel giveaway.
"The polls celebrate the spirit of the Expedia FriendTrips Game, the largest ever hosted on Facebook, offering more than $1 million in luxury travel," Expedia says.
The celebrity-giveaway strategies, executed by Orbitz and Expedia, must be paying dividends. Orbitz had a relatively modest 32,857 Facebook "likes" as of today while, in a blockbuster move, Expedia took in a gargantuan 880,518 "likes."
Undoubtedly, in the next day or so one or the other OTA will be polling their Facebook fans on whether a Qantas flight attendant was justified in telling Justin Bieber to sit down while his jet taxied toward the runway.
After all, that's Facebook -- and showbiz.