LONDON, Jan.26 -- A record number of visits from China to Britain were recorded in the nine months to September 2019, according to new official figures from the British tourist authority.

VisitBritain said there were 321,000 visits from China during the nine-month period, up 8 percent on the same period in 2018. Visitors from China spent 553 million pounds (722.9 million U.S. dollars) during this period, up 11 percent compared with 2018.

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show it was a record October for inbound tourism spending in Britain. Visitors spent 2.3 billion pounds (3 billion dollars) in Britain in October 2019, the highest ever for the month of October.

The statistics also show that it was a record-breaking August-to-October period in 2019 for both overseas visits to Britain and for visitor spending. August 2019 was the highest month ever for both inbound visits and spending and only the third time ever to break the four million mark for inbound visits to Britain in a single month.

According to VisitBritain, tourism is worth 127 billion pounds (166 billion dollars) to the British economy and the number of overseas visits to Britain is forecast to rise in 2020 to 39.7 million, the highest ever.