LONDON — Canadians are visiting Britain in record numbers, with visits up 12% to 643,000 and spending up 24% to a record £505 million from January to September 2016.

According to VisitBritain, due to the drop in the exchange rate, Britain saw a surge in overseas visitors in the first three quarters of 2016. A strong finish is projected for the year’s final quarter.

“These strong numbers show how much Canadians enjoy exploring the culture, heritage, cities and countryside of Britain. And with the current exchange rate, Canadians see value for money. It’s a great time to visit the U.K., and enjoy the benefits of how much further your dollar can take you,” said Paul Gauger, VisitBritain Interim Executive Vice President.

When considering inbound visits overall to the U.K., there were a record-breaking 28.1 million visits from January to September, up 2% on the previous year. Strong growth was also seen in visits and spend from the U.S., Britain’s most valuable visitor market, with spend up 9% to a record £2.5 billion and visits up 3% to 2.7 million.

In the first nine months of 2016, there were a record-breaking 12.2 million visits to English regions outside London, up 4% compared to the same period in 2015. Canadian visits to the English regions from January September, outside of London, were up 15% to 280,000.

Wales saw inbound visits increase 12% from January to September last year to 856,000, while in Scotland, overseas visits grew 4% to 2.2 million, the strongest year to date since 2007.

As for this year, VisitBritain’s latest inbound tourism forecast shows that growth is set to continue in 2017 with 38.1 million visits, up 4% on 2016, which is likely to see about 36.7 million visits by year’s end.

Spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach £24.1 billion this year, an 8% increase on spending last year, which is expected to top out at £22.3 billion. Latest flight booking data from ForwardKeys shows that flight bookings to the U.K. for January 2017 are up 11% on the same month last year. Flight bookings from January to March are up 10% on the same three-month period last year.