JAKARTA, May 31 (Xinhua)- The deadly earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale which had killed over 5,400 people and devastated over 100,000 houses, ancient temples and tourist objects, had seriously affected the tourism sector in Yogyakarta, 440 km east of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia.

    Data issued by the Yogyakarta disaster media center Tuesday night showed, up till Tuesday evening, those injured in the earthquake totaled 16,547, while a total of 116,046 homes were damaged.

    The quake indiscriminately damaged a mall, plaza, hotels and the historic palace of the Yogyakarta kingdom, houses of prayers and historic sites as well as souvenir centers in the area.

    The disaster would adversely affect Yogyakarta which is known as the icon of Indonesian tourism, besides Bali, especially by foreign tourists, Antara news agency quoted Bagus Sudibya, Deputy Chairman of the Travel Agencies Association as saying in Surabaya,capital of East Java province on Tuesday.

    "Yogyakarta as well as Bali have their respective special market in the tourism sector. In the short run, the deadly quake will certainly affect tourism businesses," he said.

    However businessmen have their own special strategy in marketing tourist packages. For the time being, Bali and Yogyakarta tourist packages could be switched to Solo and other regions, such as Batu and Malang in East Java.

    "More important, however, is handling humanitarian issues, so that tourist businesses will for the time being have to be ignored," he said.

    "In Bali, we in the past few days gave more attention to the collection of funds and basic needs including blankets, clothes, medicines and food. On Monday we sent three trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to Yogyakarta," he said. Enditem