Last week, you heard the Christmas concerns and complaints from the small tour operators and guides positioned outside the Tourist Village. They feared that they wouldn't get many jobs since, for one, there were only two ships coming in on Christmas Day, and two, many of the tourists had pre-booked tours with the larger companies.
And while they said this would be the worst holiday season for them, it's not so for the tour companies who operate inside the village. Nickoli Alvarado from Nukche' Kau'kau Adventures told us today that 2025 was the best Christmas, and it's only going to keep getting better. But why was their experience different? Here's what he explained.
Nick Alvarado, Owner, Nukche' Kau'kau Adventures
"Our experience will always be different when it comes to the amount of time you put into the company and preparation you do before anything starts up because we are preparing for the reason long before the start so when the season comes, we have to go with the season, you can't wait until the season comes to get prepared. I mean BTB tries to help everybody out here, the smaller operators, not like us, but the smaller operators, they actually provided $1,500 to over 100 artisans and operators and hair braiders out at terminal 1, 3, 4 and terminal 2. So that was given to them, it wasn't physically given to them in cash, it was given to the area where they get their - like if you're going to Westrac to upgrade your vehicle or fix your vehicle, or to Golden Bay to stack for the artisans or the hair braiding, then they will give them. I mean they try to help everybody to prepare for it but some people still didn't take it and prepare themselves so they always miss the opportunities once they aren't prepare."
"You have people that are out here longer than me and they're still complaining because they've been at the same level from they started. If you're at the same level from when you start, you can't expect change, you have to change the mentality before you expect change."
Jules Vasquez:
"You have invested substantially, hundreds of thousands from what I see. A lot of people they don't understand that if you want the reward, you have to take big risks."
Nick Alvarado, Owner, Nukche' Kau'kau Adventures
"You have to invest back in your product, you can't have the product and not invest in it. If you don't invest in your product and upgrade, like every year we try to upgrade our product. We only use our vehicle for a certain amount of time, we sell those off and try to upgrade and always upgrading."
"2025 Christmas better than 2024 for us, I could tell you that for sure and 2026 will be even better, 2027 will be better too and when the port is built in 2029, it will be a lot better so that's all I'm waiting for right now."
They have 15 tour guides and provide employment for 10 families in Boston Village.
