Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath has flagged a structural shift in India’s options market, warning that the explosion in weekly options trading has made it harder for investors to hedge market risks, particularly during periods of geopolitical volatility.

In a post on X, Kamath said serious hedgers typically rely on options contracts with maturities of 30 days or longer, but the market has increasingly shifted toward ultra-short-term contracts following the rise of weekly expiries.

According to data shared by Kamath, the open interest (OI) structure of Nifty index options has changed sharply over the past decade. In 2015, contracts expiring within 0-7 days accounted for about 18.8% of total index options open interest. Today, that share has surged to around 60.4%, reflecting a significant concentration of trading in near-term contracts.

At the same time, the share of 16-30 day contracts has dropped sharply from around 30% in 2015 to just about 12% now, indicating that longer-dated options, typically used for portfolio hedging, have lost liquidity.

Kamath said the shift has been even more dramatic when measured in terms of trading volumes. Total index options contracts traded per quarter have surged from about 564 million in 2015 to a peak of 34.9 billion in the third quarter of 2024, representing a roughly 62-fold increase.

However, he noted that the growth has been driven almost entirely by contracts with maturities of less than seven days, suggesting that the surge in activity reflects speculative trading rather than traditional risk management.

“The market has structurally shifted from hedging to speculation,” Kamath said in his post.While the surge in liquidity is positive for market participation, he warned that it has created an imbalance in the options market structure. Liquidity is now heavily concentrated in very short-dated contracts, while longer-tenor options, which institutional investors and portfolio managers use to hedge risks, have become relatively thin.

This imbalance becomes particularly visible during periods of elevated volatility, such as the current geopolitical tensions involving Iran, Israel and the United States.

Kamath said that during such episodes, investors looking to buy protection through longer-dated options often find it difficult to execute meaningful hedges because liquidity in those contracts has dried up.

“When volatility spikes, buying meaningful insurance is difficult precisely when people need it most,” he said.

He argued that a healthy derivatives market should offer liquidity across multiple time horizons, including 30-day, 60-day and 90-day contracts, rather than concentrating almost entirely on near-week expiries.

To address the imbalance, Kamath suggested that regulators and exchanges could consider pricing incentives to encourage longer-tenor options trading. Measures such as lower securities transaction tax (STT), reduced exchange charges and lower brokerage costs for options positions held beyond 30 days could help attract more activity to longer-dated contracts.

Thompson, chairman of the Chief Executive Alliance and previously ranked as the world’s top CEO coach, and Loflin, Nasdaq’s Global Head of Board Advisory, joined forces to provide a 360-view of this loaded moment for leadership, from the C-suite and board perspectives, respectively. In a wide-ranging conversation with Fortune, they talked about the Shakespearean themes of leadership and turmoil and the feeling that “heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

For those aspiring to reach the top, Thompson shared the conventional wisdom he’d learned from his mentor, Marshall Goldsmith: “What got you here got you halfway there.” (Goldsmith had a New York Times bestseller in 2007 with What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.)

The transition from being a high-performing executive in a “swim lane” to having the “aperture of having a full enterprise” requires substantial new learning and skill development, Thompson argued, because no matter how great an executive you are or how prepared you think you might be, the stakes are existentially high. The risk that a CEO might “lose his or her head within the next year or so” is “easily like 20% or at the big brands It feels like it’s twice that,” said Thompson, who recently penned an essay on the subject of CEO “decapitation” for Fortune.

Adding to this pressure, Thompson and Loflin added, is the radical shift in board member expectations. Board members, who once might have been “golf buddies,” are now “really under the gun to perform.” They are “less patient” and expected to “actually deliver,” based on their subject matter expertise.

This environment demands nearly every candidate be ready to serve as a “peacetime in a wartime CEO,” Thompson said, capable of harvesting the best aspects of the company culture while also being “disrupting and breaking new ground.” An executive promoted from a functional role, such as a CFO, may possess the “gravitas of understanding the street and the shareholders,” but often lacks the breadth to “light hearts and minds” across the workforce, or do “ride-alongs with customers.”

The loneliness of the tower, and ‘relationology’

Fortune has been tracking this tenuous moment for leaders throughout 2025. Top recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found 1,235 CEOs had left (or lost) their jobs through the first half of 2025, a stunning 12% increase from 2024 and the highest year-to-date total since Challenger began tracking CEO turnover in 2002.

Jim Rossman, Barclays’ global head of shareholder advisory, who’s been closely tracking shareholder activism for decades, similarly found record activist-linked turnover at the top for 2025. “It feels like what activists have done is basically [to hold] public companies to the standards of private equity,” Rossman told Fortune in a previous interview, as they have come to view the CEO “more as an operator, not somebody who’s risen through the ranks.” In other words: Results matter.

The intense environment contributes to feelings of isolation. As CEOs often note, being the boss is a lonely job where leaders are caught in the middle, with information they cannot share with reports but must share with the board, creating a huge information asymmetry, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously told McKinsey.

Carolyn Dewar, the co-leader and founder of McKinsey’s CEO Practice, previously told Fortune that “No one else in your organization or above you, like your board or your investors, see all the pieces you see.” She advocated for leaders to surround themselves with trusted advisors—“a kitchen cabinet” of sorts.

Similarly, Loflin told Fortune he’s fond of the concept of “relationology,” which he describes as “sort of a study of relationships.” He suggested leaders must develop a “portfolio of relationships of intimacy” that are “very context-relevant.” A leader’s effectiveness hinges on having fluency, for instance, when speaking to a CFO about analyst days, or working with a compliance team to keep the business safe or connecting authentically with union executives. Loflin said he’s often seen it being a “big surprise” to accomplished leaders that they have, say, seven different groups they need to engage and maybe as many as six new skills to really flesh out before they’re ready to take the enterprise to the next level.

This need for deep, context-aware connection also applies to personal life, Loflin added. The idea that a personal life and professional life can be entirely separate “undermines leadership and undermines the fabric of a company.” Critically, Loflin said, the chair must really know his CEO “at a deep level, like a Shakespearean level,” requiring a transparency that ensures appropriate accountability. After all, Loflin noted as one example, boards have to be mindful that a personal relationship that violates company policy can jeopardize corporate governance at the drop of a hat. The board really needs to know who their CEO is, maybe better than the CEO knows themselves.

The power and the privilege, the hubris and the humility

Loflin, who admitted to Fortune that he’s a bit of a Shakespeare nerd, noted the difference between a tragedy and a comedy is determined by “the vulnerability and the self-awareness of the protagonist,” and a tragic outcome results from a feeling he likened to “never recognizing whether I needed to grow or change.”

Thompson added that surviving as a CEO requires an “odd combination” of traits you might read in a Greek tragedy: hubris and humility.

The CEO must possess the hubris, or excessive pride, to believe they can be the best in their field, but also the profound humility that acknowledges they can’t do it alone.

The professional mandate is relentless, Thompson added, citing a key interview for the book from Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: if you were the “same guy you were a year ago, you don’t deserve to be promoted.” Thompson said he thinks of hubris of being at “the edge of your competence, so rather than retreating, you actually should lean into that” to acquire the skills and help you need to keep growing as a professional.

For top leaders, Thompson said, the top job is not a prize to be won, but a “privilege to do this role.” Just as Olympic athletes must constantly improve, he added, leaders must recognize that breaking a record only attracts more competition.

Loflin urged boards and executives alike to move beyond a Wolf of Wall Street mindset and into “what it means to authentically care for and build the confidence and foster appropriate accountability.” He said that for many executives, admitting you have areas to improve on and get better at is a “special vulnerability.” He argued boards need more genuine, interpersonal affection—sometimes of the tough love variety—is needed to prevent a truly Shakespearean tragedy on their watch.

Loflin said he’d just had breakfast with a board director for a $30 billion company and the subject of love arose: “Do you love your management team?” The director said yes, definitely, almost like relatives. After all, they had been with the company over a decade and come to have deep relationships with other directors and their C-suite. Loflin argued that over decades of advising boards on corporate governance, he wishes more would adopt this sort of attitude.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt anything in business because a good father has to talk to a troubled son, hopefully he’s mentoring when [the son is] getting himself in trouble.” After all, Loflin continued, “bad stuff happens, and I think some of these metaphors are important.” In other words, it shouldn’t be the Wolf of Wall Street, but the wolf—or the activist—is always at the door.

Consumers are looking for ways to travel on tighter budgets. Many are ditching first-choice options like flights for cheaper ones, like long-haul bus rides. Others are just staying home.

Travel demand fell in the second half of last year, when even high-income households spent less on hotel rooms, Morning Consult recently found. It’s the latest sign that consumers are making tough choices when they run out of affordable substitutes for everything from airline tickets to eggs.

“All the additional costs associated with traveling — eating out, airfare, gas costs, items to be bought before the trip — are causing more consumers to walk away instead of making the purchase,” said Deni Koenhemsi, head of economic analysis at Morning Consult.

Those who aren’t walking away are increasingly tweaking their plans.

“I definitely have made some changes to travel based on pricing, timing, etc.,” said Ken Tran, 36, who works in marketing in New York City. He’ll often drop down a star rating on hotel bookings for short trips or hunt for Airbnbs for longer ones.

Tran also said he’s been opting for family visits outside of major holidays — traveling for Lunar New Year, for instance, instead of Christmas. If a trip is three hours or less, he added, he sticks with basic economy seats, often on buses or trains.

“Going around the Northeast, there are many more options for travel outside of flying, and when booked in advance, tickets are pretty reasonably priced,” he said.

Middle-income travelers are more likely to stretch their budgets so they can stick with their plans, but those with lower incomes are pulling back, Morning Consult found. This socioeconomic divide has been years in the making as the industry caters to its wealthiest customers and nudges everybody toward premium options.

After affluent consumers dominated the holiday travel season, their plans for the year ahead remain robust. Over 93% of those making at least $200,000 annually told the tourism market research firm Future Partners they’ll be doing as much or more leisure travel this year than last. By contrast, nearly 28% of those making less than $50,000 expect to take fewer leisure trips in the next 12 months, while just 15% of travelers overall said the same.

On the budget end of the market, consumers face trade-offs — like thinner amenities at economy-level hotels, where room rates have fallen, or downgrading from a domestic flight to a bus as intercity routes expand.

While demand for luxury hotels rose 10% last year, bookings in the economy sector were down 2%, according to Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group. Room rates at these cheaper properties were a modest 0.8% lower year over year as of December, he said. Daily rates for budget lodgings averaged $72.11 in 2024, down slightly from $72.69 in 2023.

But to keep prices steady, many operators are trimming costs to offset expenses for payroll, insurance, energy and more, Freitag said. Guests could already be noticing that at the breakfast buffet. “Dishes that used to be served warm may now be a ‘heat it up yourself’ item,” he said.

Suzanne Wolko, a travel blogger based in Philadelphia, said she’s been embracing more day trips to avoid paying for lodging.

“Costs have risen so much it has become a budget issue,” she said. Planning visits to Manhattan for events or Broadway shows, she often encounters $400 hotel rates that she considers “ridiculous for 3-star quality and service.” So instead, she’ll hop on a 90-minute train, spending between $17 and $32 each way when booked far enough in advance, and head home in the evening.

Domestic airfares are about 12% higher this month than in January 2024, according to the booking platform Hopper, which expects the run-up to continue. “Late spring and summer prices are currently forecasted to be above 2024 levels by double digits,” said Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist, though she noted that last summer saw some of the cheapest airfares on record as carriers raced to fill seats they’d added during the pandemic rebound.

“I look forward to taking our partnership to even greater heights,” Wong’s official account posted. “We hope to welcome you back to Singapore soon!”

The past few years have been good for Singapore, and things stand to get better. The island nation occupies a key position in the region, maintaining close ties to China and the U.S. even as the two powers decouple their economies amid rising tensions.

Singapore’s recent growth as a financial center has often come at the expense of Hong Kong, its longtime peer and rival that has been pulled closer to Beijing in recent years. And the return of Trump to the White House could tip the scales even further toward Singapore, as the incoming president threatens to tighten the screws on China.

Trump’s election is a “net positive for Singapore, net negative for Hong Kong,” says Devadas Krishnadas, a former Singapore government official and CEO of the Future-Moves Group, a consulting firm. He predicts U.S. funds will shy away from Hong Kong and its close links to China, and instead continue their march to Singapore: “Singapore will be seen as the only safe place in Asia for U.S. and European capital.”

Foreign capital from around the world is rushing into Singapore’s financial institutions, attracted by political stability, a lenient tax regime, and relative neutrality. Assets under management in Singapore rose to $4.1 trillion in 2023, ahead of the $3.9 trillion managed in Hong Kong.

Singapore’s race with Hong Kong to be the preeminent financial center of Asia is led by its Big Three banks: DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank (UOB), and OverseaChinese Banking Corp. (OCBC).

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Led by CEO Helen Wong, OCBC—the oldest of the Big Three—perhaps best characterizes the country’s banking sector and best reveals how Singapore navigates this new future.

“OCBC is maybe the most representative of the Singapore banking sector,” says Michael Makdad, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “DBS is larger in Greater China, but less outside Singapore, whereas UOB has a larger presence outside Singapore but less in Greater China. OCBC has both.”

Chinese capital remains a major part of OCBC’s business. Southeast Asia is China’s largest trading partner, having replaced the EU in 2020. Bilateral trade between China and Southeast Asian countries reached $912 billion in 2023.

“Singapore will be seen as the only safe place in Asia for U.S. and European Capital.”

DEVADAS KRISHNADAS, CEO, Future-Moves Group — Singapore

But China’s investment in Southeast Asia is changing, says Tommy Xie, OCBC’s chief China economist. “Mining used to be the largest sector receiving investment from China around 10 years ago,” Xie says. “But now the share has really diminished. Manufacturing is one of the largest right now.” And much of the money is in Singapore, which Xie says accounts for just over half of the Chinese money flowing into the region.

Singapore has also become a safe haven for Chinese companies navigating an increasingly unfriendly world. The Southeast Asian country is a good launching point for Chinese companies trying to diversify their supply chains throughout the region in a “China Plus One” strategy. And some startups, like fast-fashion platform Shein, have quietly established headquarters in Singapore due, at least in part, to hopes that a non Chinese home base might be more palatable to Western investors.

If Singapore is going to surpass Hong Kong as a financial hub, core to its strategy is wealth management. The government offers tax incentives to single-family offices that set up shop in the city. As of August, there are now 1,650 such offices receiving these tax breaks, up from 400 at the end of 2020.

Wealth management generated $2.9 billion for OCBC in the first nine months of the year. The company has designated “Asian wealth” as one of its four business areas; just over a third of the bank’s income is derived from wealth management. Earlier this year, Wong pledged to invest an additional $192 million in the cities of Hong Kong and Macau, and its private bank unveiled a target to grow Hong Kong assets under management by 50% by the end of 2026.

That could be challenged by the new Trump administration. Both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration imposed sanctions and financial controls on China—first on individual companies, then on entire sectors. Expanded controls under a new Trump White House will force Singapore’s banks to stop working with certain customers and sectors.

OCBC sees the pullback of U.S. banks from Hong Kong as an opportunity to win new customers. During a trip to the Chinese city earlier this year, Wong noted that “more and more of the Hong Kong customers choose to talk to us, instead of talking to their Western counterparts.”

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OCBC’s official founding dates to 1932, when three local banks merged amid the Great Depression. The oldest of those predecessor banks dates to 1912, giving OCBC over a century’s worth of history in the Southeast Asian city.

That same bank, Chinese Commercial Bank, opened a bank branch in Xiamen—then known as Amoy—in China’s Fujian province in 1925. That branch survived through the civil war and the Communist takeover, giving OCBC almost a century of uninterrupted operations in China, rare for a foreign bank.

For decades, OCBC was the largest of Singapore’s banks, but it’s since been eclipsed by DBS Bank; today DBS holds around $587 billion in total assets, compared with $448 billion for OCBC.

With $18.4 billion in revenue in 2023, OCBC ranks No. 12 on Fortune’s inaugural Southeast Asia 500 list, which ranks the region’s largest companies by revenue. (DBS, with $25.6 billion in 2023 revenue, sits at No. 10, while UOB is No. 11 with $19.7 billion.)

OCBC also holds a majority stake in Great Eastern, the city’s largest life insurance provider, and offers private banking through the Bank of Singapore, acquired from ING in 2009. In 2014, OCBC also snapped up Wing Hang Bank, a Hong Kong bank, giving it a foothold in both the Chinese city and the Greater Bay Area, a Chinese project to knit together the cities of the Pearl River Delta.

Sixty-two percent of OCBC’s revenue is generated in its home base of Singapore. Much of its non-Singaporean revenue comes from two major sources. Southeast Asian markets, primarily Malaysia and Indonesia, contribute 19% of the bank’s revenue; Greater China, a catch-all term that encapsulates mainland China, Hong Kong, and the island of Taiwan, generates an additional 13%.

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Helen Wong took over as OCBC’s CEO in 2021, the first female chief executive in the bank’s history and the first woman to lead a Singaporean bank. She is No. 17 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list for 2024: the second-highest-ranking executive from Asia, after Luxshare Precision Industry founder Grace Wang. Wong is also on the inaugural Fortune Most Powerful People list, at No. 71.

Yet Wong’s roots lie in Hong Kong. Born there in 1961, she graduated from St. Paul’s College, one of the city’s most prestigious schools, then from the University of Hong Kong.

Wong’s first banking job was with OCBC, as a management trainee, in 1981; she quickly became the bank’s first China desk manager. She eventually moved to HSBC, starting a decades-long career that culminated in becoming the bank’s chief executive for Greater China in 2015.

She returned to OCBC five years later, joining as its deputy president and head of global wholesale banking in 2020. A year later, the board gave her the nod to become the next chief executive, specifically pointing to her China experience.

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Hong Kong remains Singapore’s closest competition. The Chinese city has struggled in recent years owing to the aftereffects of its tough COVID-zero policy, concerns over Beijing’s encroaching jurisdiction, and a sluggish Chinese economy.

But Hong Kong officials now think they’ve turned a corner and are offering new incentives to attract the world’s wealthy, with a goal of luring 200 more family offices by the end of 2025. UBS predicts Hong Kong could overtake Switzerland as the world’s largest hub for cross-border finance as early as 2026.

Hong Kong’s IPO pipeline, while far from the highs of just a few years ago, is also showing signs of a revival as Chinese companies like appliance manufacturer Midea launch bumper listings in the city.

Singapore’s capital markets, by comparison, are “a complete joke,” says Devadas, the consultant. Singapore “is not even in the same ballpark as Hong Kong,” even after the latter’s stock market took a beating in the wake of the pandemic. In the first three quarters of the year, Singapore drew just one IPO; Hong Kong drew 45. Singapore’s government has now set up an official task force to tackle the problem.

Hong Kong’s recovering stock market helped the city overtake Singapore as Asia’s leading financial center on a ranking from the China Development Institute, a China-based think tank.

Yet Singapore’s government is “unconcerned” about potential competition from Hong Kong, Devadas says. “They don’t see it as a zero-sum game.”

“What’s good for Hong Kong is good for Singapore,” Devadas says, noting that the things that support a healthy Hong Kong economy—like a healthy Chinese economy—benefit Singapore, too.

“But the reverse isn’t necessarily true,” he says. Singapore can tap into other regions much more easily than Hong Kong can, without the baggage of being tied to China.

OCBC, for its part, isn’t picking between the two. “They are both resilient, international financial centers attractive to international investors and businesses,” Wong writes to Fortune. Hong Kong is key to the bank’s China plans; Singapore to its ASEAN expansion.

Still, geopolitics could make life trickier for Singapore, even if Washington doesn’t pressure the Southeast Asia country directly. Trump’s promise to impose broad tariffs on all imports entering the U.S. could upend the global trading system, hitting a trade-focused economy like Singapore’s.

But Trump’s election also brings opportunities. Greater pressure on China will encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Southeast Asia—and provide even more opportunities for Singapore’s banks, like OCBC, to benefit from those flows. “With more Chinese manufacturing coming [to the region], it must benefit a bank like us,” Wong told analysts during OCBC’s earnings call on Nov. 8, when the bank unveiled record net profits for the year thus far.

“Everyone comes to Singapore first to start a company,” she said.

This article appears in the December 2024/January 2025: Asia issue of Fortune with the headline “Shifting fortunes.”

What makes a happy camper this summer? S’mores, sing-alongs and — lately — streaming.

The pandemic nudged millions of people toward outdoorsy trips and experiences, and many are now hooked. But they’re increasingly demanding a decent Wi-Fi connection wherever they pitch their tents or park their RVs, and campsites are providing it.

Wi-Fi at campgrounds has become “the fourth utility behind water, sewer and electric,” said Tim Rout, founder and chief solutions officer at AccessParks, a San Diego-based broadband provider for RV parks and campgrounds.

“Six or seven years ago it was a ‘nice to have’ service so people could load their email or check their bank account,” said Rout. “Now people expect the same quality of service in RV parks that they get at home.”

About 40% of campers say Wi-Fi availability influences where they decide to camp, said David Basler, chief strategy officer for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry trade group. “Generationally, this increases to 65% in Gen Z and millennials and 45% in Gen X campers,” he said.

Searches for Wi-Fi-equipped U.S. properties on the campsite booking platform Hipcamp are up 110% year over year, according to founder and CEO Alyssa Ravasio, who said the number of such sites grew by 30% over the past year. Most Hipcamp hosts that provide Wi-Fi don’t charge guests extra for it, Ravasio added.

Wi-Fi is now offered at 82% of U.S. campsites, OHI estimates, slightly ahead of laundry and even shower facilities. It was the most commonly provided amenity last year among privately operated camping properties surveyed recently by The Dyrt. The camping information app found Wi-Fi being added at a faster rate (nearly 16% of campsites added it from 2022 to 2023) than pickleball courts (12%), dog parks or kayaks and canoes (each at 10%).

“Good, solid Wi-Fi at the campsite is the No. 1 priority,” said Catherine Stifter, 67, citing her wife’s love of movies and streaming services.

But Stifter needs a good connection, too. The couple lives and travels in their van full time, and when Stifter, a fitness instructor, leads her twice-weekly online qigong practice group, reliable service is a must-have.

When it isn’t available, she said, “I might end up using the signal up at the lodge.”

The Dyrt found 29% of campers worked while camping last year, up from less than 24% in 2022 and 2021, even as more employers mandated a return to in-person work. Some campers may have been “quiet vacationing” — working from a remote destination rather than taking off to fully unplug.

Rout said AccessParks’ business was already growing before the pandemic. “But since more people flocked to the outdoors and RV sales accelerated, there is a younger, more professional demographic in campgrounds — more families, more Zoom calls with work, distance learning, etc.,” he said. “Since then, our growth has dramatically increased due to the demand for fast broadband Wi-Fi.”

At least one Montana campground relies on Wi-Fi for a camera system that monitors the area for grizzly bears, Rout added.

Marley Behnke said Wi-Fi was already installed at the campground in Grayling, Michigan, that she bought in late 2022. In addition to letting guests stay connected and share details from their adventures with loved ones, “there are apps that provide real-time updates for activities, facilitate food delivery, organize scavenger hunts and enable interactive games,” she said.

The campground, which is part of the Jellystone Park network, currently pays about $700 a month for Wi-Fi. Behnke said she’s looking to add fiber service by this fall.

Wiring a campsite for high-speed broadband comes with challenges like ensuring the signal can make its way through uneven terrain, trees and metal RV bodies and withstand extreme weather. Depending on property size and the type of service offered, installation might run anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000, Rout said, though campgrounds can typically recoup the expense by raising prices by little more than $1 a night.

One factor that could be driving demand for Wi-Fi in the wilderness: the influx of newbie and higher-end campers who may prefer a less rustic experience.

The share of first-time and less-experienced campers hit 32% this year, down from a peak of 41% in 2022 but far higher than pre-pandemic — when that rate didn’t surpass 18% from 2015 to 2019, according to the campground operator KOA.

While middle- and lower-income travelers are especially keen to camp this summer, Deloitte researchers say, camping demand is up 7% in a year when high-income travelers comprise a greater share of this season’s leisure travelers overall. The “glamping” (glamorous camping) sector is forecast to grow by more than 15% each year through 2029, according to Arizton market research.

“I’ve got kids who have not grown up camping consistently, so I definitely need a posher camping experience,” said Sommer Nyte, 46, a Bellingham, Washington, realtor who recently bought a new pop-up tent trailer. Wi-Fi is on her wish list alongside pools, boat rentals and programming for families with children.

Internet connectivity isn’t sweeping every campsite, though. It’s available at 65% of those listed on Airbnb, a spokesperson said, up only modestly from 61% in 2019. That’s despite sharper increases in bookings of camping vehicles (22% higher than last summer) and camping properties (up 10%).

However, Hipcamp’s Ravasio noted, “there’s an increasing number of campers — especially with RVs, adventure vehicles and overlanding rigs — that are equipped with their own devices to be self-sufficient for Wi-Fi, like Starlink or hotspots.”

And then there are those who still go camping to get away from it all.

“There used to be a curtain of isolation between campers and the outside world,” said John Stark, a 73-year-old retired broadcaster from Tucson who just returned from camping at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico — which doesn’t offer public Wi-Fi. “Now campgrounds are extensions of our living rooms.”

“I blame cell towers,” he added.

One way analog campers like Stark can stay offline is to stick to publicly operated campgrounds. While the RV Industry Association found about 60% of private sites offered Wi-Fi as of 2022, only 3% of public ones did.