As the sky ominously darkens and thunderstorms roll in, khaki-shorts-clad concierge Marcus Richardson approaches guests lounging on the Nomad Ridge terrace watching wildlife roam below and offers to secure the window flaps of the 10 circular canvas tents or fetch a soothing glass of wine.

Adults-only Nomad Ridge, a luxury wilderness experience in southeastern Ohio, is modeled on African safari camps. For about $360 a night, a duo can stay in one of the Mongolian-style yurts with electricity, private bathrooms, plus decks and ceiling fans. The pricier "Grand Yurt" has a king-size bed and air conditioning. Rates include dinner, breakfast and a safari on the Wilds' nearly 10,000-acre game preserve, the Lancaster Eagle Gazette reported.

"It's like a little piece of Africa," says guest Jeff Derr of Holtwood, Pa., peering through binoculars at rhino, trumpeter swans and rare Sichuan takins (bearlike creatures with heads like those of giant guinea pigs). Their yurt, with hotel-style bed, is truly comfortable, Cindy Derr says.

Welcome to 'glamping'

Such glamorous camping experiences are dubbed "glamping" - a trend among vacationers who want to be in the wild but don't care to sleep on the ground, tromp in the dark to communal bathrooms and cook over campfires. It's even driving bookings at Kampgrounds of America (KOA), where stays in recently built lodges are up 15% this year, even though KOA's campsite business is down, CEO Jim Rogers says.

Lodges, tepees and gussied-up Airstream trailers are a way for KOA "to give people an outdoor experience (such as nightly campfires) with some of the comforts they enjoy," Rogers says. "We are reaching people who may not have had an outdoor experience." Lodges at more than 300 North American locations have a kitchen, bath, flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi, gas grill and typically rent for $100-$150 a night.

Simpler outdoor digs are available at Lakedale Resort at Three Lakes on Washington state's San Juan Island. "Canvas cabins" with pillow-top mattresses and cordless lanterns (but no electricity or private baths) start at about $160 a night with breakfast. A U.S. glamping pioneer, Costanoa, on the scenic northern California coast, has canvas cabins with electricity and heated mattresses from $89 a night.

The increasing popularity of glamping has even spawned GlampingHub.com, which details glam camping options around the world.

Over-the-top glamping, similar to that at Africa's top safari lodgings, is found at the new Pinnacle Camp at 37,000-acre The Resort at Paws Up near Missoula, Mont. Expect to pay at least $1,000 for two to stay in one of the four chic camps, where top-of-the-line tents have jetted tubs and heated slate floors, and guests are pampered by butlers and chefs.

Rates include all meals, including regional treats such as bison and smoked trout.

The resort - which also offers stays in luxury homes - has 24 tents, which sell out so fast that more are planned. Many of Paws Up's affluent guests have "a desire to go camping. But they don't want to rough it in any way, shape or form," says John Romfo, director of sales and marketing.

The aim at Ohio's Nomad Ridge - sold out many nights and having a record summer - is to provide a "reasonably priced" upscale wilderness experience, says Tom Stalf, chief operating officer of the Wilds and its partner, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

"We have plans to build more" yurts, he says.

The Wilds, about 11/2 hours by car from Columbus, also attracts day trippers who snap photos from buses and open-air safari vehicles or soar on just-installed ziplines. There are campsites, cabins and a lodge that can be booked for family reunions and such.

A decade ago, it was a big deal when somebody showed up at a campground or RV park with a laptop, and parks that offered them wireless Internet or Wi-Fi service were seen as cutting edge, even revolutionary.

It's a different story today.

Laptops are nearly as common as cellphones and Wi-Fi service is no longer considered a luxury, but rather a necessity.

Indeed, while RVers in the early days needed Wi-Fi service to monitor their e-mail or check their stock performance or keep in touch with their bosses or employees, today's RVers are using Wi-Fi for an even greater variety of applications.

Every day, in fact, 40% to 50% of Internet users are visiting websites like Google Earth and Facebook. Social media behemoths like Facebook didn't even exist a decade ago.

Now add to that the increasing use of the Internet for entertainment purposes, whether it's watching streaming video on Netflix or YouTube or participating in interactive, Internet-based video games, such as World or Warcraft, and one gets a sense of how the Internet and the need for Wi-Fi access increasingly dominates our lives.

Meanwhile, the number of devices that campers use to connect to the Internet - for work or for pleasure - is greatly expanding. "Guests are coming in with smart phones, gaming devices and tablet computers as well as the traditional laptop," said Jim Ganley, managing partner of CheckBox Systems LLC in Portland, Maine.

Not surprisingly, the dramatically increased demand for Wi-Fi service is pushing the limits of many parks' Wi-Fi capabilities. A large percentage have older Wi-Fi systems that need to be replaced or upgraded to keep up with demand. Other parks have good equipment, but need more bandwidth to accommodate their guests' Internet consumption needs.

"We've had a lot of parks that are running into a bandwidth crunch," Ganley said.

"The smart phones and iPads are becoming a major issue," adds Jim Ames, co-founder, president and CEO of Napa, Calif.-based Airwave Adventurers Inc. "One of the biggest things I'm seeing is that there is more and more of a demand for an increase in bandwidth and the technology is not there to support it."

As a result, he said, park operators are increasingly looking at ways to upgrade Wi-Fi systems that can no longer handle the Internet consumption demands of today's RVers.

"Wi-Fi service has utility-like service expectations so being connected is an important and emotional issue for guests," says Eric Stumberg, president and CEO of Austin, Texas-based TengoInternet, who notes that RVers often will not stay at parks that cannot deliver reliable Wi-Fi service.

"I'm still getting customers coming in that are replacing the original equipment put in by the local network guy," Ames said. "They realize they need to spend money to get commercial equipment."

But park operators do not only need vendors who can install reliable Wi-Fi hardware, they also need local Wi-Fi service providers who can provide increasing volumes of Internet data. "Everything depends on what the Internet connection is," Ames said. "The hardware isn't the only issue. It's the pipeline coming into the park."

Many parks also need companies to manage these systems, not only to ensure the proper functioning of these systems, but to make sure that guests are not engaging in illegal activities using the park's Wi-Fi network. "We've had several parks that are getting notices from the music and movie industries that say, 'You have somebody at your location that is illegally downloading information from the Internet.'"

The park operator is liable for illegal data downloads, unless the park owner can provide the address of the computer that illegally downloaded the data.

Wi-Fi service providers range from companies offering self-installed hardware, to those offering total solutions, including network system management and guest services.

TengoInternet, for example, provides everything from network design and installation, to staff and guest support, to network monitoring and management. "We design solutions based on the unique needs of each facility," Stumberg said. "Most park operators want Tengo to manage their network and guests so they don't have to."

The Austin based company, back-to-back winner of the ARVC Supplier of The Year Award, provides a turn-key solution. "Park operators have been willing to pay for a reliable network, the right guest experience and a knowledgeable company to deal with changing network, Internet and guest expectations," Stumberg said, adding their most popular service provides parks with 24/7 system and guest support.

"Park operators will need to accommodate the ways people connect to and use the Internet- it's not getting any easier," Stumberg said.

CheckBox Systems, for its part, sells Wi-Fi hardware that parks can operate on their own or with company support, depending on their needs. "At the bottom end," Ganley said, "we have systems for $299 for a club house or small park. But the more typical system is about $1,500 and includes the hardware, an HC2 controller unit and typically about three access points that would cover say a 15-acre park with 100 sites." CheckBox offers a one-year warranty and product support with its systems, while ongoing park and customer support is available for a fee after the first year.

Airwave Adventurers does system designs and sells Wi-Fi equipment. Park operators can choose from multiple options, whether they want to install and run it themselves, to having it fully installed, and/or having a managed 24/7system with an extended warranty. The average system costs $2,000 to $3,000, while installation ranges from $600 to $1,000. Woodall's Campground Management subscribers are also eligible for a 20% discount, Ames said.

Regardless of which system park operators select, the Wi-Fi needs of today's RVers are likely to further increase, Stumberg said. "AT&T had a 5,000% increase in mobile data traffic between 2007 and 2009, and video is expected to drive 69% of traffic by 2014," Stumberg said. Cisco, he added, expects the volume of data sent over Wi-Fi to exceed data sent over wired networks by 2015.

Wakefield Research and the Wi-Fi Alliance also produced a study that found that 65% of those surveyed said they would seek Wi-Fi capability in every tech item they bought this year. "People are going to continue to connect to the Internet in different ways," Stumberg said.

As social media's importance continues to surge, Go RVing's Facebook page has seen tremendous growth in 2011.

Now numbering more than 61,200 fans, up six-fold from its 10,000 fans in June 2010, Go RVing's Facebook followers "are a highly engaged group who actively contribute, share and post on the wall," according to a press release.

To further the involvement of this virtual community, on July 11, Go RVing launched a revamped format of its page which now features a daily status theme to keep followers returning each day and interacting. With catchy names like No Mundane Monday, Tuesday Trivia Throwdown, Webshare Wednesday, Take-Me-Away Thursday, and Freewheelin' Friday, fans will come to look forward to favorite days of postings.

For the next year, Take-Me-Away Thursdays will showcase another feature, 50 States in 50 Weeks, which will highlight one state each week and suggest unusual things to do or see by RV in that state; the bonus week 51 will focus on Washington, DC. The Facebook page will also launch a Fan of the Week feature in the upcoming weeks.

Social media like Facebook continue to be very cost-effective ways to reach and engage our target audience. The majority of Go RVing's community consists of people age 35-54, the primary targets of the campaign. On a monthly basis, more than two-thirds of those who have "liked" the Go RVing page (42,000 of the 61,000), have been actively engaged, meaning they have clicked on the page to read updates, make comments, view videos or look at photos.

In the past month, feedback from followers has averaged more than 36% per update posted by Go RVing, showing that they interact by "liking" our message updates or they fully engage by answering queries and commenting on posts made.

"Facebook provides a wide variety of analytical tools providing a real-time snapshot of who our audience is, how our messaging is being received, and what is driving their interest," said James Ashurst, RVIA vice president of public relations and advertising. "This allows us to make changes to our social media marketing tactics on the fly."