BEIJING, July 4 -- China's service trade continued to experience rapid growth in the first five months of 2024, with value up 16 percent year on year, with stellar growth in travel services, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The total value of service imports and exports reached 3.02 trillion yuan (about 415.6 billion U.S. dollars).

Exports amounted to about 1.22 trillion yuan, up 11 percent, while imports stood at 1.8 trillion yuan, with a robust growth of 19.6 percent. This resulted in a service trade deficit of about 580 billion yuan.

Maintaining a high growth rate, travel services imports and exports totaled 819.72 billion yuan, a 48.4 percent increase, making it the largest sector in service trade.

The knowledge-intensive service trade continued to expand, with a total of 1.19 trillion yuan in imports and exports, a 6 percent increase.

Within this sector, exports of knowledge-intensive services reached 675.31 billion yuan, growing by 2.8 percent. There was particularly strong growth in the areas of intellectual property rights fees and personal cultural and entertainment services, with increases of 17.8 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.

Imports of knowledge-intensive services were 514.58 billion yuan, growing by 10.4 percent, with personal cultural and entertainment services and other business services seeing the fastest growth, at 49.4 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively.

As China continues to ease its entry policies, an increasing number of foreign travelers can now visit the country with greater convenience.

In the first five months of this year, the number of inbound foreigners exceeded 12 million, with over 7 million entering without the need for a visa, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

During this year's Dragon Boat Festival holiday from June 8 to 10, the number of foreigners entering and exiting the country saw a year-on-year increase of 57 percent.