Sri Lanka's national airline on Thursday announced that it has enhanced its services for customers in China with the launch of a local direct-dial number for the airline's customers throughout China.

SriLankan Airlines said the new facility will connect callers directly with Mandarin-speaking customer service staff at its Global Contact Center.

China is one of the most rapidly growing travel markets of Sri Lanka, which is currently witnessing a boom in visitor arrivals.

A total of 271,577 Chinese visited Sri Lanka in 2016, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics, making China the second-largest country of origin with a 13 percent share, after India.

Chinese arrivals have continued to grow by over 4 percent during the first five months of 2017, with 117,539 arrivals.

SriLankan Airlines now provides local direct-dial services in a number of languages for customers to make inquiries regarding a wide range of services that include flight schedule queries, ticketing and reservations and its frequent flyer information.

SriLankan Airlines has rapidly expanded its global route network throughout Asia and the Middle East, and currently serves 104 cities in over 40 countries. As a member of the prestigious OneWorld Alliance, SriLankan Airlines also offers its passengers connectivity to over 1,000 cities in some 160 countries that are served by its oneworld partner airlines.