About

Summary

Acorn Tourism Consulting contributed to a public sector institutional assessment and expenditure review in Barbados, focusing on strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of government ministries.

The assignment reviewed institutional structures, budgets, and delivery mechanisms across five ministries: Tourism, Education, Health, Agriculture, and Social Services. The objective was to assess how public resources were allocated and whether policy and development objectives could be achieved more efficiently.

Our Approach

Acorn’s role focused on the tourism institutional review within the wider public sector assessment.

This included:

• Reviewing public sector tourism organisations to understand how budgets were allocated and spent
• Assessing whether tourism development and marketing objectives could be delivered more efficiently
• Undertaking extensive face-to-face consultations with public and private sector stakeholders
• Identifying gaps in institutional capacity, coordination, and delivery structures
• Assessing existing marketing, investment, and product development functions

Outcome

The assignment provided a clear evidence base to support institutional strengthening and improved public sector efficiency within the tourism sector.

Findings helped identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness of tourism marketing, investment promotion, and product development through clearer structures, better coordination, and more efficient use of public resources.