Sudden Departure

Did you know Rogers’ top tourism official has resigned?

Allyson Twiggs Dyer, executive director of Visit Rogers since October 2010, is leaving to launch her own marketing company, The Twiggs Group.

Dyer said she will stay on through at least mid-November to help with the transition of finding the next person to handle oversight and day-to-day duties of the organization.

Before coming to Rogers, Dyer — a Gentry native and basketball player at the University of Arkansas from 1990 to 1995 — was director of the Fayetteville Convention & Visitors Bureau for eight years.

Dyer said she will start her business from her residence in Fayetteville, with the ambition of opening an office near the downtown square in the future.

The change in occupation, she said, will afford her the flexibility to spend more time with her family, particularly with her son, a junior at Fayetteville High School and an aspiring college basketball player.

Visit Rogers, which receives funding from a 2-percent tax on hotel and motel rooms in the city, has an operating budget of $800,000. Its staff includes two full-time employees and one part-timer.