how many chips are there? if there are only a few fairly large chips, then touch up probably would work. but if you have a million little chips, which is more common for highway-driven cars, then you wont be happy with a touch up. even if you had the patience to dab paint into every little chip (just the thought of doing this thousands of times makes me want to gouge my eyes out), then you're left with a hood with a thousand little paint spots....no bueno.
if you can't stand something like that, then repaint the panel. but then again, some people prefer to keep their original paint if they can, so they just live with the chips...