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Chicago-Indianapolis matchup in Super Bowl should be a boon to S. Florida
By Tom Stieghorst
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 23, 2007
"Give me visitors from the freezing Midwest any day," said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, who hopes the pairing will expand the long-term market for visitors from that region.
Chicago is the No. 2 supplier of winter tourists to South Florida, after New York, but the Midwest as a region trails the Northeast as a feeder market.
Kathleen Davis, a sports economist in Fort Lauderdale, said fans of the two teams are hungry, which should translate to more spending. "These teams haven't been to the Super Bowl since 1971 [Indianapolis] and 1986 [Chicago]. You will probably see more impulse decisions to attend," she said.
Davis also noted that many people from those cities have retired or own property in communities on the west coast of Florida and may make day trips to party before the game.
Simply narrowing the field to two contending teams on Sunday triggered an avalanche of reservations at area hotels. "We pretty much sold out in the last 24 hours," said Scarlet Weiss, director of sales and marketing at the 200-unit Hilton Suites Boca Raton. Weiss said there were 65 rooms available for the Feb. 1-4 dates last week. Now there are two. The rooms cost $479 a night, up from about $350 normally.
Football's ultimate game is expected to draw 125,000 out-of-town visitors and generate a $250 million to $350 million economic impact, Davis said.
Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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