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has made a unique contribution to the Government's
program of Foreign Aid by establishing American-
operated hotels in important world cities. This has helped
to stimulate travel and trade in areas throughout the
world, and has helped supply American dollars to those
economies in need of them. The program has, in addition, fostered international good will.
The tremendous growth of the Hilton Hotels Corporation in the past ten years is vividly portrayed in the
financial statistics summarized on the opposite page.
During this decade, the Corporation's total assets more
than tripled, gross revenues more than quadrupled, and
net profit from operations, despite sharply higher labor
and material costs, increased more than twofold over
the net profit for 1947.
Your management is confident of continued growth in the next decade, although the pattern of growth may
change. There are, for example, few
remaining opportunities for purchasing
and integrating fine domestic hotels into
the Hilton system, a policy pursued to
excellent advantage during our first ten
years of operation. Mushrooming population growth, coupled with a lack of hotel construction,
has led to a shortage of domestic hotel space.
For the future, a careful program has been adopted
which will yield profits in spite of today's high construction costs. The Statler Hilton in Dallas, The Beverly
Hilton, and the Hartford Statler, have already demonstrated that proper planning of new hotel properties pays
off in sound profits.
Profits, however, are not our only concern. We are also
concerned about people—whether they be shareholders,
employees, or guests. We like to think of the Hilton
organization as not only a city of fine hotels, but as a
family of closely-knit individuals, all of whom share a
warm feeling toward the Corporation, its facilities, and
its personnel. On this tenth anniversary of our existence
as a corporate entity, it is fitting that your Corporation
resolve to sustain and increase its personalization efforts.
Remember that this is your Corporation. Make use of
your privileges as a shareholder. Most of the major cities
you visit are served by properties of the Hilton Hotels
Corporation. Visit these properties for the finest in hotel
accommodations. Your Hilton-Statler credit card, one
of the world's most widely-held cards, enables you to
charge room, food, and beverage services to your account, and to cash checks. If you do not hold a credit
card and wish to apply for one, write to the Credit Card
Division, Hilton Hotels Corporation, 9958 Santa Monica
Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California.
In the years ahead, as in the decade just completed,
our progress will be a result of loyal and diligent efforts
on the part of the nearly 25,000 men and women comprising the Hilton organization. It will be a reflection,
also, of the co-operation of our 6,000 stockholders, whose
confidence and support have laid the groundwork for the
Corporation's growth to date. To these groups, and to the
others who have contributed so much to our success, the
management of Hilton Hotels Corporation pays tribute.
March 11, 1957
PRESIDENT
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