Hilton Hotels & Resorts this fall will start a campaign encouraging
Americans to get passports.
The hotel chain will collaborate with travel-advocacy group
Passion Passport on the Hilton Passport Project, which will include a New York
event this fall. Attendees will be guided through the passport-application
process and treated to a media production touting destinations around the
world. Attendees can win prizes.
Later this year, some Hilton hotels will open "Passport
Project" centers, where visitors get their passport photo taken and
receive an application. As part of the campaign, Hilton will install billboards
and digital videos at the country's busiest airports, such as Chicago O'Hare,
Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth.
"Hilton Passport Project is our way of helping more
Americans unlock the power of travel and realize the benefits a passport can
bring them -- whether that's becoming more content with their lives or enjoying
new experiences and opportunities," the company said in a statement.
In announcing the campaign, Hilton released results of a June
survey of more than 1,000 American travelers. The poll, which was conducted by
Edelman Intelligence and included in a report titled "The State of U.S.
Passport Use," found that U.S. passport holders were "more likely to
be content with their lives" than people without passports.
Two-thirds indicated that they equated international travel
with the value of a college education, while 59% who recently traveled abroad
indicated that they had another overseas trip already planned.
Eighteen percent who had passports said that they had never
used them for travel, and 46% said the U.S. offers as good a quality travel experience
as abroad.
Approximately 41% of
Americans have passports.