TIFF is good business.

That’s the assertion the festival made on Tuesday, releasing economic impact numbers which showed $170.4 million in contribution to the Ontario economy – not to mention 2,300 jobs – thanks to TIFF’s year-round programming activities and the construction of the TIFF Bell Lightbox. That number is projected to grow to $200 million once the project is fully completed at the end of 2012 and the fest has a year-round home. The Lightbox will open this September.

With the help of the OMDC, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, and the City of Toronto, TIFF commissioned TCI Management Consultants and Cormex Research to perform a year-long impact study which wrapped last August. The Ontario Ministry of Tourism also independently hired TNS Canadian Facts to determine the Festival’s tourism role.

Among other findings, the studies demonstrated that TIFF generates more than $60 million in tax revenue (factoring in year-long activities and construction); that out of town festival attendees spend more than $27 million in Ontario; and that an additional $54.1 million was injected into the Canadian film industry as a result of business conducted at the Festival in 2008.

Observed TIFF CEO Piers Handling in a release, ‘We are very pleased to see that as TIFF has evolved and grown over the past number of years; the impact we have had on the city and the province as a whole has substantially increased as well.’