The Barbados Garrison Historical Consortium (BGHC) was incorporated in September 2006, as a nonprofit development corporation, with the objectives of:

1.      addressing the existing heritage tourism weaknesses and challenges in Barbados, particularly as they relate to the Garrison Historic Area;

2.      providing overall management and coordination of the development and implementation of the attractions within the project area, that will collectively become “The Garrison Heritage Tourism Area” (GHTA).    

The BGHC will be governed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from a wide stakeholder base, to include government, non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and private tourism stakeholder groups.  All day-to-day activities will be managed by a Project Manager / Executive Director with the support of a small professional staff.  

The formation of the BGHC was initiated early in 2004 by The Society of Friends of the Garrison, an alliance of dedicated groups and individuals most responsible for the development and management of the Garrison over the past 30 years.  By forming an independent, yet representative non-profit development corporation, the Society selected an appropriate organisational structure for managing a development project of this nature and, consequently, will likely avoid the problems most socially and culturally oriented NGOs experience when pursuing project development activities directly.

In October 2005 a committee of stakeholder representatives was selected by the stakeholders themselves. See Annex Ia for a list of committee members. It is the intention that the Board of Directors will be elected from this group of individuals by the end of May 2007, having representation from at least ONE member of each stakeholder group.  However, activities will continue to be managed and implemented by a small Steering Committee until such time as the Board of Directors is established.