Tourism's plan fund allocation of 170.91 crores is an all-time high, say department officials, indicating that in years to come, this is will be a yardstick to follow. Infrastructure and marketing initiatives have around 61% of the total fund allocation.

Marketing initiatives has been allotted Rs 40.50 crores. "In this age, impetus has to be given to marketing. Areas such as digital marketing are virtually untapped. We have to keep pace with the ever-changing customer needs," said Rani George, tourism director. Initiatives such as mobile Apps, online activities and road shows will take precedence in India and abroad. 

The major highlight for tourism is the allocation for infrastructure. Rs 70 crores has been set aside for various projects such as developing state-of-the-art tourist information centres in every district, development and implementation of the tourism master plans at major destinations and upgrading the basic infrastructure facilities at existing destinations.

"Tourism minister has said that 50 new destinations will be developed this year. We have not made a list but this will also be part of the new product development in the department," said planning officer U V Jose.

Development of innovative tourism products has been allotted Rs 2 cr. "This money will mostly be used to develop adventure tourism. We have already come out with many brochures for advertising adventure tourism. Now we are planning on highlighting agencies that promote adventure tourism in their respective destinations," said Rani George.

The display system of the wayside information kiosks will be revamped and made activity-based rather than a place that just dishes out maps to visitors, said George. The department is planning to introduce free software at wayside kiosks that can be downloaded by visitors on their phones or laptop. "Some of these might even contain augmented reality applications to find destinations much easier," she said.