What happens after COVID-19? City of Mandurah plans 'aspirational reboot' post-pandemic

The streets of the Peel region were unusually quiet for the annual holiday but it is a scene that is becoming quite familiar as the COVID-19 outbreak continues.

Despite the unprecedented challenges for local tourism and hospitality industries, the city is fighting on with a campaign to reboot Mandurah following the pandemic.

The City of Mandurah has vowed to do everything it can to increase visitation to the region, support employment-generating projects and encourage residents to buy local in an effort to help businesses survive the coronavirus crisis.

Mandurah mayor Rhys Williams said the City was focused on plans to stimulate the economy and launch an "aspirational reboot" post-pandemic.

"Our number one priority is keeping the community safe and keeping our businesses open. For most, the best chance of survival is to basically hit the pause button now and get ready to reboot once we get the go-ahead from government," he said.

"We're looking at allocating a huge amount of our reserve funds for a really aspirational reboot.

"It will be done differently to how it's been done before because people will still be conscious of congregating in large groups.

"While there is no golden bullet that will fix this in the short term, we are a strong and resilient community and together we will help our local businesses rise once again."

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Nationwide messages to stay home and strict travel restrictions throughout Western Australia as part of the COVID-19 pandemic plan has been beneficial to the public's health, but tourism across the state has felt the sting.

Figures from Tourism WA suggest the industry, which employs 108,000 Western Australians, could take a $8.5 billion hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent industry survey revealed 57 per cent of businesses had ceased operations and gone into 'hibernation', with 42 per cent still trading but with drastically reduced operations.

Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said the industry depended on tourism businesses being able to survive the current downturn.

"The industry understands that public health is everyone's priority and the restrictions are necessary to protect our communities," he said.

"We need tourism businesses to survive so that they can start operations and create local jobs when it is once again safe for Western Australians to travel within the state.

"The key to a tourism economic recovery, particularly regionally, is when Western Australians can start travelling within the state once more."

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Cr Williams said the City of Mandurah would work hard to attract intrastate travellers after restrictions were lifted.

"Our local tourism arm, Visit Mandurah, and our events team are working with local operators on how to stimulate this part of our economy once people start travelling again," he said.

"When the time is right, we will really be leveraging our close proximity to Perth and investing heavily in programs and activities that draw people to Mandurah."

There has been plenty of speculation over when the time might be right with optimism sprouting off the back of a low increase of coronavirus cases across the state.

While WA could start to adjust tough restrictions as early as May, Premier Mark McGowan said he wasn't about to open the interstate border any time soon.

"We're going to work on this over coming weeks to see what can be eased and what can be tweaked, but I don't want to start ruling things in or out now," he told the media this week.

"The restriction I'm not going to let up on, certainly in the near to medium term, is the interstate border."