BEIJING, April 29 -- China's culture sector and related businesses registered a strong recovery in the first quarter of the year (Q1) amid the sound implementation of relevant policies and the boom of consumption demand, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Saturday.

The combined revenue of major enterprises in the sector and related businesses hit 2.88 trillion yuan (about 415.94 billion U.S. dollars) in the period, up 4 percent year on year, at a pace of 3.1 percentage points faster than the entire year of 2022, according to the NBS.

Total profits of these firms surged 38.1 percent from the same period of 2022, with that for digital content and internet information services seeing rapid growth, the data revealed.

During the same period, the cultural, entertainment and leisure services sector experienced the highest revenue growth among the nine categories in the culture industry, indicating a significant rebound in businesses that rely on social interaction and gathering.

Specifically, the revenue expansion of tourist service and entertainment service both topped 50 percent year on year, and that related to leisure sightseeing tours stood at 28.8 percent.

NBS data also showed that emerging business forms in the culture industry further expanded in the first quarter. Total revenue of the 16 related fields rose 11.1 percent year on year to account for 38 percent of the combined revenue of all major companies in the culture sector.