The Mauritius tourism board is offering a free training program online in hopes of better promoting the destination in China.

The Mauritius Travel Specialist program that has gone online from Sept 12 on the Chinese website ctoa.travellinkdaily.com/Mauritius, features five courses, including Mauritius general introduction and travel information.

Since then, there have been 110 people registered for the program and 43 of them have passed and got a certificate after passing a test of 70 questions about Mauritius tourism.

In 2013, Mauritius introduced a visa-free policy for Chinese whose stays do not exceed 30 days. In 2015, Chinese tourists to the country have increased by 41 percent from about 60,000 to 90,000.

The African island nation in the Indian Ocean now has direct flights from five Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.