Marriott CEO sees business travel improving

Chairman of Marriott International Inc. J.W. Marriott, Jr. speaks at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council meeting on November 17, 2009.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Marriott International's (MAR.N) Chief Executive said business travel was improving, and that he wasn't sensing cancellations from unrest in the Middle East and higher fuel prices.

"We're trending up with group business. It's getting better," J.W. Marriott Jr. told reporters on Monday.

"I think businesses are saying 'we haven't been out of the office in two or three years. We have to get out.'"

The Bethesda, Maryland-based operator of Marriott, Residence Inn and Ritz-Carlton hotels is the largest U.S. hotel company by market value.

Business travel accounts for a bigger slice of the market than leisure. At expensive hotels such as those operated by Marriott International, 80 percent of the guests are usually business travellers. (Reporting by Kyle Peterson; editing by Carol Bishopric)