Health tourism is one of the business sectors which has great potential for growth in the era of tertiary economy. Health tourism is such area which only benefits from the development of knowledge intensive services. Globalization and digitalization make everything much more interconnected. The wide spread of internet makes living much easier and more democratic. However, individuals may feel frustrated because they feel their inability to manage their lives as successfully as they did earlier. People face more demands and constantly are under pressure. Such changes in daily routines and activities can cause a desire to work harder instead of to remain healthy. Individuals are concerned about their mental and physical well-being because they feel more responsible, first of all, for their personal happiness. Such tendency in the behavior of individuals remains strong during the recent decades due to the higher quality of life. Health tourism services are the excellent way to solve problems which individuals have currently.

A purpose of this study is to discover possible ways health tourism services may be developed until the year 2030. A main reason for choosing a shorter 15-year time horizon is a fact that health tourism companies provide certain kinds of services to their clients. It is logical to choose a shorter period if a case is about market-oriented firms. An approach to study this topic is formed out of the consistent application of various qualitative methods and tools. These qualitative methods and tools of futures research are futures scenarios, futures map and images of the future. Images of futures were collected during interviews of two groups of respondents. The first group consisted of Russian and Finnish professionals who could be considered as experts in a field of health care and health tourism. Another group of respondents was potential consumers of Russian and Finnish health care services. The next stage of a research process was to apply critical thinking towards opinions and images of the future of respondents. It helped to define the strongest trends, weak signals and influencing until 2030 forces. Contents of the futures map was based on understanding what kind of issues may be the most important. Finally, four futures scenarios describe how health tourism services between Finland and the North-western Russia possibly may be in 2030.

Many different events, processes, factors and trends will influence on the development of health tourism between Russia and Finland in the next 15 years. Images of the future that people create regarding the future development of health tourism between Finland and the North-western Russia. depend much on their professions and their level of expertise and job experience.