Here in snowy DC, my husband and I are counting down the hours until the Saints take on the Colts in the Super Bowl in Miami. I’m cooking in between shoveling stints – brownies just came out of the oven and jambalaya is on tap for dinner (alas, I couldn’t find Abita in the pre-blizzard grocery frenzy).

For the big game, I pulled together a roundup of tourism-related articles about what’s going on in Miami this weekend, tourism-wise.

As I wrote earlier this week, New Orleans experienced a burst of hotel bookings as Saints fans flocked to the city to celebrate with the rest of Who Dat Nation (read the post here and an Associated Press story from Feb. 3 here). My favorite quote in the latter story, from a woman who turned down tickets to Miami in order to hang in NOLA:  ”Who wants to be on Miami Beach when they can be in the French Quarter with the Who Dats for the game?”

From the Miami Herald: From a booking standpoint, Miami hoteliers had actually been rooting for the Jets to make it into the game. New York is the biggest population center and would probably have drawn a huge number of fans to game, a Jan. 24 story said. In contrast, Indianapolis is a smaller city with a fan base that doesn’t travel often, and hoteliers worried that New Orleans fans wouldn’t have the income to spend as lavishly as their Viking counterparts  (read the full story here).

A follow-up story in the Herald on Jan. 27 reported that Saints fans were far outbooking Colts fans. The article quotes Robert Finvarb, who owns four Marriott hotels in Broward and Miami-Dade “The callers we’re getting all have Cajun accents. Indianapolis is a dog for Super Bowl.” (read the full story here).

And a Feb. 5 story from my alma mater, the Times-Picayune, backs that up. Indy was just in the Superbowl in Miami a few years ago, plus the economic downturn and excessive snow has kept people in the Midwest from getting to the game.   (read the full story here).  

There’s a lot on the line for Miami’s tourism industry: This Jan. 29 story from the Sun-Sentinel suggests that this Superbowl may be the last for South Florida because of NFL concerns that the stadium isn’t updated enough. Other cities with newer stadiums, including some in colder climates, have come on strong as possible Superbowl hosts (read the full story here).

Interested in where the teams themselves are staying? Oyster blog has a fun breakdown of the two Miami venues where the Saints and Colts have been holed up (Intercontinental Miami and Marriott Harbor Beach Resort, respectively). Their view? The Colts have far better digs. My question – with all the fabulous hotels in Miami, these two are the best the teams could come up with? Yeesh. The story, with lots of great photos, is here.

A few hours to go – and who are you rooting for? Leave me a comment below (I promise not to be too mean if you aren’t in the Saints’ corner!)