The government's call for residents to avoid socialisation and stay at home, as well as bans on outside gatherings of 500 people and indoor events of more than 100 have hit businesses hard.

Those who can work remotely have been sent home, while cinemas, theatres and clubs are either closing or limiting the number of attendees. With the government warning isolation measures could be in place for upwards of six months, experts have warned a recession looks inevitable and sadly, it's not a matter of if job losses and business closures occur, but when.

Among it all amid the isolation and helplessness of this strange new world world - hope prevails. Even those in arguably the hardest hit industries, travel and entertainment, are trying to find a silver lining to a very dark situation.

Ever since chief medical officer Brendan Murphy announced gatherings of more than 500 people were banned last week, Rolf Lossow's phone hasn't stopped ringing.

Mr Lossow owns and operates two sound and event companies on the Border, OzSound and Lighting, and PartyOz Entertainment.

He's also general manager of Core AV in Shepparton.

In nearly 20 years working in the entertainment industry, he's never had a week like this one.

In just 24 hours from Mr Murphy's announcement last Friday, his forecast income flatlined.

"For us, it's probably a downturn of 85 to 90 per cent of our business income over the next few months," he said on Monday.

"We're having cancellations into May."

And just when Mr Lossow thought things could not get worse... they did.

When the government announced a ban on indoor events with more than 100 people, his phone started ringing again.

All the regular gigs in pubs and clubs that were unaffected by the earlier announcement were scrapped.

People started cancelling events, school formals, band performances, and debutante balls into September and October.

In just a week, a normal year in which Mr Lossow expected they'd handle 1200 to 1300 events took an absolutely disastrous turn.

"Anything we still had booked is gone," he said on Thursday.

"It went from 95 per cent to 100 per cent really.

"Everything from now to the end of July has been cancelled, aside from a few private weddings."

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Through PartyOz Entertainment and OzSound and Lighting, Mr Lossow employs two full-time workers, and engages about 23 contractors from DJs to labourers.

"My number one goal is I don't want to lose any staff, the majority of my contractors are young guys that's all they do," he said.

"They rely on DJ'ing and entertaining every week.

"The majority of the business people in the industry are giving the advice 'fire all your staff and look after yourself', but my mindset is the exact opposite."

Mr Lossow said his two full-time staff would remain employed for the foreseeable future and he was setting up a virtual stream where his DJs could perform, battle and entertain the masses of people who won't be going out this Saturday night.

He hopes the Twitch feed, which people can access through the PartyOz Entertainment Facebook page, will eventually be sponsored, providing some much needed income to his business and staff, and run every Friday and Saturday night.

The event will be interactive with residents able to chat and engage with each other during the sets.

Mr Lossow said right now people needed hope more than ever.

"It's about creating a positive vibe in an industry that's being absolutely gutted," he said.

"We're all going to be trapped in a bubble very soon, it's very easy to lose the plot and feel very isolated, this is about relating and interacting with others.

"Most people calling me are hoping the government will do something to help the entertainment industry, again, it's about hope."

At Albury Travel, staff are spending the majority of their time cancelling, rather than planning, dream holidays.

Ever since the virus started to spread and countries started implementing quarantine measures on arrivals, holiday after holiday has been called off or postponed.

"[Normally] we'd maybe be having one cancellation every month to two months, generally because someone is ill or life circumstances," Albury Travel owner Jacqui Nelson said.

"It's fair to say the majority of what we are doing at moment is in cancelling and rearranging travel."

Ms Nelson said obviously the business had taken a hit, but unlike many industries the travel sector was relatively prepared for, and familiar with, the impact of global disasters.

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"It doesn't help the bottom line but we're in an industry where we know that global events will impact business whether it's what we're seeing at moment or whether 9/11 or SARS," she said.

"As an industry we actually prepare for these eventualities... If travel demand goes down in long term that will start to affect a lot of businesses including the travel industry but short term will be able to ride it out very well."

The current coronavirus crisis is unlike any Ms Nelson has seen before.

"It's totally global," she said. "There don't seem to be any alternative destinations."

Amid the chaos and uncertainty, however, the industry has banded together.

"We're seeing policies and refunds and waivers like we haven't seen for years," Ms Nelson said. "Hopefully it means this kind of flexibility continues into the future once this is over."

However residents looking to make the most of the extremely flexible and cheap travel deals on offer at the moment should be aware of the fine print.

"Cruiselines and airlines are trying very hard to protect revenue coming in to the business, they're offering great deals, there's just fantastic stuff going forward," she said.

"It's really going be individuals choice in whether they feel comfortable with that because you can a book ticket with say 12 months variation and you can change without penalty.

"They are not going to charge a penalty fee, but it doesn't mean they're not going to charge a higher price if you move it to a time where fares go up. There are always terms and conditions."

Ms Nelson said no changes had been made to their staffing as, if anything, staff were busier than normal changing and cancelling travel arrangements.

"We need to prepare not just for cancellation but also for the rebound," she said.

"Once everything is open and the virus is under control, travel is going to go gangbusters."

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