As an experience host, you get to share your passion with travellers from around the world. This article can help you share your passion responsibly. You design and control your experience listing, what service you offer, when and where you host, and what you charge. It is your responsibility to be aware of and comply with all legal and regulatory requirements when hosting your experience.

You can use this article as a starting point for learning about local laws or regulations that may apply to your experience, but it doesn’t constitute legal or tax advice. We’re also not responsible for the reliability or accuracy of the sources we’ve linked to, so we encourage you to double-check the sources and seek your own legal advice. We don’t update this information in real time, so you should always confirm that the laws or procedures haven’t changed recently.

This page contains information about responsible hosting in Singapore. We also have articles that contain general information about hosting experiences anywhere in the world, which you can find in the Responsible hosting section of our Help Center.

Tour guiding guidelines for experiences in Singapore

Tour guiding is a licensed profession in Singapore. Under the Singapore Tourism Board Act (STBA), a Tourist Guide is as an individual who personally provides any guiding services to a tourist for remuneration. "Guiding services" refer to the provision of any direction, information, description or explanation to the tourist while accompanying the tourist in or to a place or point of interest in Singapore. As the STBA does not define what constitutes accompanying or a place/point of interest, we encourage you to check with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) or speak to your lawyer to make sure you are following the laws.

Please note that acting as a tourist guide without a licence is a criminal offence under the Singapore Tourism Board Act, and may attract criminal liability including a fine of up to S$5,000 (for the first offence) and S$10,000 (for subsequent offences). The STB takes a serious view against those who engage in unlicensed tourist guide activities, and carries out active enforcement against unlicensed tourist guides.

Here are some examples of when you are likely to be considered to be acting as Tourist Guide:

1. I bring a guest around Singapore to visit the various museums and galleries while providing commentary about the places along the way.
2. The guest signs up for an Experience, I meet him in Little India and bring him to various temples and eating places while providing information and commentary about the place.
3. I take a guest on a hike through the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve during which I provide detailed explanation of the flora and fauna there.

In order to obtain a licence, you will have to pass a 6-month tourist guide course and 2 tourist guide licensing examinations. For more information on the requirements and procedure for securing a licence, please refer to the STB Tourist Guide webpage. The STB maintains a publicly available database of all licensed Tourist Guides in Singapore.