Management and efficiency in the use of public resources has gained prominence in recent decades, and is now one of the main areas of social demand. Thus, any government action in an area of social and economic interest tends to be questioned, and tourism is no exception. In 2019, the Ministry of Tourism (MTur) completed more than fifteen years in operation and began to draw up long-term policies aimed at regional development, income distribution, and increased economic opportunities. This work aims to analyze the public investments of MTur in the tourism regions of the state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), seeking to contribute to the discussion on the public budget, efficiency and development of tourism. It presents a quantitative approach linked to descriptive purposes, using the MTur’s Transfer Contracts System (SIACOR) as its main source of data. The main results of this research are that there is a spatial selectivity of public investments, with some municipalities being prioritized over others. Also, a considerable portion of the resources is concentrated in urbanization and infrastructure works, while there were few management actions to promote tourism activity in tourism regions. Finally, it was found that considerable investments are made without any technical guidance, which means that in many cases, actions to promote tourism are impossible. It was also identified that resources are applied in an inefficient way, as many contracts for the transfer of funds are never applied.