From boom to bust to dust: how Covid-19 and typhoon wrecked Siargao, surfers’ paradise in the Philippines, and its long road back
- Resort owners recall the moment Category 5 Typhoon Rai slammed into Siargao in the Philippines, flattening homes and power lines and flooding coastal areas
- Investors in its surf tourism trade had already taken an economic hit from the pandemic, but the storm’s physical hit to the island will take months to get over
When Typhoon Rai smashed into the Philippines in mid-December, the island of Siargao was among the hardest hit.
The storm killed at least 405 people and left a trail of destruction in the eastern provinces of Surigao del Norte – which includes Siargao, a tourist hotspot – Bohol and Cebu.
Among those affected have been James and Marja O’Donnell. When James, an Australian, first ventured to Siargao 13 years ago, the island of 150,000 people had just a handful of rustic guest houses catering to visitors willing to rough it to ride the waves of what is considered the best surf break in the country: Cloud 9.
“There weren’t many tourists at all,” says O’Donnell, who began travelling regularly from southern China, where he worked in manufacturing. “Then they built a road and investment began to come in from all over.”
In 2015, O’Donnell met Manila-born surfer Marja Abad. The couple married and decided to make a go of it in paradise. While James managed eco-retreat Greenhouse and the Kudo Surf Shop, Marja founded SEA Movement, a community-based NGO dedicated to protecting the local marine environment.
“In 2019 tourism was just booming,” says James O’Donnell. The island was surfing a wave of popularity, after a 2017 movie, romantic comedy Siargao, helped cement its reputation as the “Bali of The Philippines”.