Expedia, today announces the launch of the biggest prize draw ever hosted on Facebook. Expedia® Friendtrips™ is an unprecedented Facebook promotion that will deliver more than one million dollars’ (more than £600,000*) worth of travel to friends on Facebook. Launching today, the competition will run for six weeks. At the end of this period, the holidays will be awarded to the winning entrants.

To play, prospective world travellers merely need to become a fan of Expedia on Facebook at www.facebook.com/expedia. Players create a “virtual plane”, which they point towards one of a series of holiday destinations. They then fill the plane with five of their Facebook friends, each of whom simply needs to become a fan of Expedia. Once they accept the invitation, this group of friends is then entered to win the chance to be a guest on their friend’s trip.

“Expedia FriendTrips is not only the largest prize draw ever hosted on Facebook, it is the largest promotion in Expedia’s history by a wide margin,” said Scott Durchslag, president, Expedia Worldwide. “This is a major step in our new strategy we call ‘Expedia Everywhere.’ Expedia Everywhere means that if you’re dreaming about travel, booking travel, taking travel, or sharing your travel experience with your friends and family, Expedia will be with you at every step of your journey. Social media is a pillar of our new strategy, along with mobile where we just announced Expedia Hotels for iPhone and Android. Nothing more intrinsically mobile and social as travel which is why it contributes the most image content on both the social as well as photo-sharing sites. Expedia is building a powerful online community where people can share their travel experiences with one another and with all our travellers. I believe a million dollars’ worth of free travel will be a magnificent experience for our friends on Facebook and is our way of saying thank you to our customers for making Expedia the world’s largest online travel agency.”

The holidays on offer are extraordinary. Most of the trips have been contributed by the Conventions and Visitors’ Bureaus and key partners representing different regions of the world. Five of the trips are each valued at up to $100,000 (approximately £60,000) or more. Destinations include: 

Wonders of South America:  The winner and five friends will be flown first class on LAN Airlines to Chile and then on to Peru and Foz do Iguassu for a luxury 14-day tour (valued at up to $160,000 or approximately £99,900);

Luxury in St. Vincent: The winner and five friends will fly to Buccament Bay Resort on St. Vincent in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, where they will spend 7-nights in private waterview villas while enjoying spa visits, golf, scuba, tours and more (valued at up to $125,000 or £78,000);

European Cruise: Winners will fly First Class to Venice or Rome and tour the Mediterranean aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Jade. The winner and five friends will stay in a super-exclusive 6,000 sq ft. garden villa with their own personal butler service (valued at up to $100,000 or £62,000);

Viva Las Vegas: The winner and five friends will experience Vegas like the VIPs they are. This prize includes seven nights in a 4-star suite, limo service, access to the biggest shows, finest restaurants and hottest clubs, plus spa treatments, a shopping spree, golf, helicopters and more (valued at up to $100,000 or £62,000); and

Extraordinary trips to Australia, Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda, Banff Lake Louise in Canada, France, Villa La Estancia at the Riviera Nayarit in Mexico, New York, South Africa, South Korea or at the Bora Bora Le Moana Resort InterContinental in Tahiti.

What’s more, players can double or even triple their chance of winning by bringing more Facebook friends into the game: once an entrant has brought 25 friends into the Expedia FriendTrips competition, their chance of winning doubles. Should they bring 50 friends into the game, their chance of winning triples. Plus, they can build more than one plane of their own or join multiple planes to try and increase their chance of winning.

Expedia will also award four $250 (equivalent to £156) Expedia travel credits daily to contest participants who contribute pictures and share stories of why they want to visit a particular featured destination.