Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation has set aside 500 million baht — or about $14 million — to upgrade the country’s 50 most popular national parks. All of the work is planned to be complete by the end of this year. The planned upgrades include improving accommodations, bathrooms, restaurants and other facilities inside parks like Erawan National Park in Kanchanburi and Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Thailand’s national parks are popular with tourists; some 13 million people visit the country’s 127 national parks annually. Still, with infrastructure leaving something to be desired, the goal with this upgrade is to make the parks competitive with world-class attractions. It’s all part of Thailand’s five-year plan to improve the parks system nationwide, including upgrading waste management systems, improving guest facilities and renovating accommodations. The funds to improve the parks is credited by Director-General Thanya Nethithammakul to the increase in revenue from tighter measures to collect maintenance fees from the parks themselves as well as implementing changes to the entry fee collection system. The national parks department expects to bring in 1.2 million baht in 2016, up from 880 million baht in 2015, thanks to these changes.