Getting Sweaty in the International Sauna Boom

Authors: Rilla Engblom and Antti Petteri Kurhinen, Haaga-Helia UAS
Picture: Harri Tarvainen/North Karelia

Sauna tourism has a very strong position in Finland, as the sauna is an important part of Finnish culture and everyday life. It is estimated that there are more than three million saunas – and 5.6 million inhabitants in Finland. Sauna tourism is part of both wellness and cultural tourism. It is tourism in which the sauna, and the culture associated with it, form an essential part of the travel experience or even the main motive for the trip. Tourists are looking for relaxation, closeness to nature and getting to know the local way of life in their sauna experience. (Unesco s.a. a.)

To make the best out of the potential, work needs to be done. Therefore, it would be important to think about how this Finnish sauna culture could be offered even more competitively to the international tourism market.

The aim of the STEAM project, led by Haaga-Helia, is to develop the competitiveness, sales and visibility of Finnish and Estonian sauna entrepreneurs in the Japanese market. Japan is experiencing a sauna boom and a growing interest in the Finnish way of life.

In this article, we reflect on the goal of the project, based on our practical experience of the Japanese tourism market and our Finnish-Japanese cooperation in tourism business education.

Will the rest of the world notice Finland and Estonia?

Sauna culture is rapidly strengthening its position outside the borders of Finland and Estonia. And competition between international destinations for sauna tourism is already underway.

In Norway, sauna culture has risen from a small phenomenon to a rapidly growing business in the past ten years. There are now dozens of public and floating saunas on the shores of Oslo city centre, and young locals and tourists visiting Oslo in particular, have found their way to sauna bathing. (Liikkanen 24.08.2025.) Oslo has been very agile in developing sauna tourism and utilising Nordic architecture in sauna construction. It is also home to the world’s largest sauna congress (International Sauna Congress 2026).

The development has also been rapid in the United Kingdom. In the spring of 2026, the British Sauna Society listed about 640 saunas, while at the beginning of the year there were about 540. According to The Guardian’s estimates, the UK even might even become the world’s leading sauna market by 2033. At the same time, new markets, service cultures and business models have emerged around the sauna. (Tolkki 6.4.2026.) A recent British study also links dimensions of community and well-being to sauna bathing (Newson, McGrath, Mosina & Peitz 2026).

It is interesting to note that even a country that does not have a strong sauna culture at all, such as the United Kingdom, can quickly become a significant international sauna tourism destination and competitor.

Will Finland and Estonia stay on track as the world gets excited about saunas?

In recent years, the Finnish sauna has been made more accessible to international tourists with the introduction of new public saunas. The range of saunas in Finland is diversifying rapidly.

Visit Finland (2026) talks about new Finnish sauna concepts, such as floating city saunas, saunas inspired by mythology, sauna-spa complexes, self-service saunas, and sauna worlds that combine sauna, nature and local culture. For example, a year-round floating sauna was opened in Oulu in the summer of 2026, and the Sauna World in Lykynlampi in Joensuu will be further expanded in 2027.

Estonia’s position as a significant sauna country is emphasised by the smoke sauna tradition of Võru County, Estonia. Since 2014, UNESCO has added the Estonian smoke sauna tradition to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. (UNESCO s.a. b.) The country’s wide range of saunas also makes Estonia an interesting destination for tourists thirsty for an authentic tourism experience.

Finland and Estonia form a natural entity in terms of tourism. Many Japanese tourists arriving in Finland want to combine their trip with a visit to Tallinn or elsewhere in Estonia.

More steam for the sauna competition

A sauna alone is no longer enough to differentiate Finland and Estonia, but sauna products must be productized to suit international customers. Our competitive advantage comes from combining authentic Finnish sauna culture with nature, well-being, food, design and local experiences.

This is exactly what our EUR 1.3 million EU-funded STEAM project responds to by strengthening the market understanding, internationalisation capabilities and ability of sauna industry SMEs to build culturally interesting and easy-to-buy sauna experiences.

A key goal is to establish how Finland and Estonia can maintain their position in a situation where other countries are rapidly building their own sauna cultures and commercial sauna products. The examples of Norway and the United Kingdom show how quickly the market can change. In order for Finland and Estonia to get their share of international tourists and especially the increased enthusiasm for saunas among the Japanese, we need to make systematic marketing efforts.

The key outputs of the project will be a comprehensive market research report on the Japanese market, training for SMEs, co-creation workshops and company-specific sparring, as well as experiential digital marketing tools, such as 360-degree sauna tours and 3D environments. In addition, the project will co-develop sauna tourism packages and draw up guidelines for the use of SMEs.

Now is the perfect time for the STEAM project to help Finnish and Estonian SME sauna companies increase the international visibility of our sauna culture and export it to the Japanese market.

The aim of the STEAM project is to develop the competitiveness, sales and visibility of Finnish and Estonian sauna entrepreneurs in the Japanese market. The project is coordinated by Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, and the partners are Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Pärnu College of the University of Tartu and Estonian Rural Tourism. The project is co-funded by the European Union (Baltic Central Region Interreg).

Sources:

International Sauna Congress (ISC). 2026. Be a part of ISC26! Read: 29.9.2026.

Liikkanen, L. A. 24.08.2025. Norjan nouseva saunakulttuuri ja Oslon saunat ristiaallokossa. Saunologia.fi. Read: 15.9.2026.

Newson, M., McGrath, R., Mosina, G. & Peitz, L. Sauna culture improves physical and mental wellbeing in the UK through social connection and ritual. Social Science & Medicine, Volume 394, April 2026, Pages 119061.

Tolkki, K. 6.4.2026. The Guardian: Britanniasta voi tulla maailman johtava saunamaa. YLE talous. Read: 15.9.2026.

UNESCO s.a. a. Intangible Cultural Heritage. Sauna culture in Finland. Read: 15.9.2026.

UNESCO s.a. b. Intangible Cultural Heritage. Smoke sauna tradition in Võromaa. Read: 29.9.2026.

Visit Finland. 7.9.2026. Finland’s sauna culture takes on new forms: explore new sauna experiences. Press Release, Helsinki. Read: 15.9.2026.

This text is originally posted on 30.9.2026 eSignals Pro in Finnish and is translated and reposted with the authors’ approval.