YUMA, Ariz- The Yuma Visitors Bureau announced on Tuesday that they will no longer hold “Lettuce Days.” Which is a showcase of Yuma’s agriculture. Executive Director, Linda Morgan says the event was costly and required a lot of resources to put on.
Morgan said, “It’s very important for the visitors bureau to make sure that we’re spending out limited budget to actually do the mission of the visitors bureau and that mission is to bring people to Yuma so that they can spend money in our hotels in our restaurants and attractions”
This year’s event, that was held back in February, cost about $234,000 and drew around 18,000 people. Which is a lot less people than they’ve had in the past. Morgan says this year the heat played a factor and many people didn’t come.
Morgan adds, “Every year we look at how best to spend those limited resources. And we love Lettuce Days and it was a hard decision to come to to not do it this year. But it’s important to make sure that we’re using all of our resources not just money but also our man power resources to make sure we’re getting the most return on those dollars.”
Morgan said their decision to not do Lettuce Days is an effort to evaluate how it can fit into their mission.
“We are very committed to our ag tourism program of telling the story of the history of AG here in Yuma. Also the present and the future of agriculture. We’re very proud of that legacy and we want to tell that story and we think people are very interested in it. We’re thinking of ways on how we can tell that story and we can do that over the peak season instead of just one weekend” adds Morgan.
Lettuce Days was organized in the late 1990s, the festival also included live entertainment and cooking demonstrations. it was named Arizona’s best special event in 2011 during the annual Governor’s conference on tourism.