Medical Tourism : Development of Medical Tourism between Finland and Russia

Abstract

Even though Finland has strong assets and facilities to operate medical care, it is still not known as a popular medical tourism destination. Medical tourism would be rather popular among Russian customers due to various reasons, such as country’s close proximity, good quality of Finnish medical services and current needs of Russian patients. The objective of this study was to find out how to develop medical tourism between Finland and Russia. Related issues were considered to look at current situation of healthcare in both countries and learn if the presence of an operator- a contributing factor in marketing, and as a consequence, development of medical tourism The theoretical background includes medical tourism and marketing definitions, information about current health care situation in Finland and Russia and statistics, which describes why Russian customer would choose medical services abroad. In order to come to the identification of the problem and to find possible ways to solve it, the study was based on the mixed method research, featuring qualitative and quantitative research methods. Several options of interviews, as well as questionnaire were carried out with different medical and tourism facility’s representatives in Finland and Russia. The results showed that medical tourism in Finland requires the presence of an operator and improved marketing that would increase the interest of potential customers from Russia. The study also led to possible ideas for improving advertising of medical tourism between Finland and Russia.