Agritourism in Virginia is a rapidly growing industry that adds additional income to a farming operation, and helps mitigate risk. Therefore it has become a good strategy for farmers to generate higher levels of profit, but much of the literature in Virginia and surrounding states focuses more on the motivations of operators for starting their agritourism venture. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze demographic, operational, and financial factors and evaluate their correlation with higher levels of profit. The first step was to apply key factors in industrial location discussed by Sloagett and Woods (2003) to agritourism in Virginia. Next, a survey was conducted to produce primary source data on Virginia agritourism operators and how these success factors relate to their ventures. Initial findings suggest a very homogenous demographic amongst operators. In addition, there were four other main findings. First, promotion is highly important and there is a need for increased road signage in Virginia. Second, additional income is a large motivator among operators and 76% of operations indicated their business was somewhat profitable. Third, those near the metropolitan areas of Virginia Beach, Roanoke, and Washington, D.C. tended to have the highest perceived profitability. Finally, operators are highly afflicted by obstacles such as road signage, finding qualified employees, and taxation, all of which can be addressed or mitigated by the state government. The final portion of this paper tests the relationship between these factors and profitability of agritourism operations in Virginia. The empirical results reveal that those operators with a motivation for addition income and higher levels of education, with more acreage, with a higher percentage of their gross farm income attributed to agritourism, and those, on average, that have greater money spent per visitor all correlate with higher levels of profit. On the other hand, the following characteristics appear to have a negative effect on agritourism profits: wineries, greater estimated time to the nearest interstate and difficult access to capital. Assuming operators of agritourism venues seek to maximize profits, these findings illustrate to current and future operators how to adjust procedures and improve their business strategies. / Master of Science

The aim of this thesis was to analyse and compare tax morale and its determinants in South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as in Zimbabwe in different economic environments. The study applied the standard models of tax evasion, game theory, prospect theory, agent-based theory and slippery slope framework to explain the variability in the determinants of tax morale between South Africa and Zimbabwe under different economic and political environments. The study becomes novel in that it provides a comparative analysis of the determinants of the tax morale between Zimbabwe and South Africa under contrasting economic and political time scales. The study also tested a new variable, namely hunger, on how it affects tax morale in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study was guided by quantitative research which was used to inform the study. Data was collected using questionnaires from the 2010-2014 and 2017-2020 World Values Survey (WVS). For Zimbabwe, Wave 6 and Wave 7 had a sample size of 1500 and 1200 respectively. The Wave 6 survey for South Africa had 3531 participants. Data was analysed using STATA software 2013 Version. The study’s dependent variable, tax morale and independent variables included marital status, age, income level, employment and religion among others, and analysed them using the Ordered Logit Model. The Ordered Logit Model was used to empirically model the effects of the identified variables on tax morale. The study concludes with an understanding of how tax morale and its determinants is crucial for governments in their bid to boost voluntary compliance. Also, different economic milieus for a particular country affect the level of tax morale significantly. Tax morale was established to be high when Zimbabwe was experiencing economic growth due to the introduction of multi-currency, herein called the dollarization period, and the opposite was true for the post-dollarization era. Surprisingly, the study’s results showed that Zimbabweans have a higher tax morale than South Africans, who have better standards of living. In addition, the determinants of tax morale also differ from one economic situation to another and from one country to another. Corruption, which is a menace in both countries under study, has proven to be an important factor that influences tax morale. Results of all the models show that demographic factors have little effect on tax morale. The study introduced an important variable of hunger in its analysis of determinants of tax morale. Though this variable was insignificant for South Africa, the study showed that there is a negative relationship between hunger and tax morale for Zimbabwe in both economic situations. Based on the thesis’s findings, policy makers should consider the eradication of corruption and hunger in order to boost tax morale, which in turn improves tax compliance. Also, policy makers should include improvement in the perception of democracy in the mix of enhancement strategies of tax compliance. / Economics / D. Com. (Economics)