Saunas have been growing in popularity in Tasmania in recent years. A Finnish sauna expert who now lives in Tasmania says they have a long history in her home country, where the majority of people use them several times per week.
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00:00Do you like to get sweaty? Because the Tassie tourism sector is betting that you do.
00:07Saunas or sauna, if you're feeling Finnish, have been popping up all over the state recently
00:12at beaches and resorts and in private homes. So why are saunas so hot right now?
00:18It relaxes you in a way nothing else actually does.
00:25Anahila Nanabeya lives in Tasmania and says in Finland, a country of 5.5 million people,
00:30there are three million saunas.
00:32You have private saunas in your home, you have a sauna in your summer house, we have
00:37public saunas, we have mobile saunas. If you go hiking, you have a tent sauna with you.
00:45And tourism operators are keen to promote sauna as part of Tasmania's image as a wintry
00:50wellness wonderland.
00:52The wellness market is growing rapidly all around the world. We've got the perfect backdrop
00:57of that wilderness, that rugged coastline, and then being able to strip off and jump
01:04into a sauna by looking out to these beautiful views. It's a pretty good experience.
01:10For Emma Martin, who runs a northwest-based sauna business, it started as a way to connect
01:14with friends and family.
01:16We invite all our friends over and say, like, let's catch up in the sauna. It's just a place
01:21where you can turn off from the outside world. You put your phone down, you're in there with
01:25your friends, they can't get out.
01:28Unlike Finland, there may not be a sauna for every second Tasmanian, but the state's cold
01:32climate and the tourism sector's enthusiasm to climb aboard the wellness bandwagon means
01:37there may soon be one at a lake or in a car park near you.