By Alabama Public Radio
Birmingham, AL – Alabama has one major amusement park -- VisionLand in Jefferson County. The Memorial Day weekend usually marks the start of the peak season for the nation's amusement parks. It's a nearly eleven billion dollar industry. It has been making a steady recovery after the sharp drop in leisure travel that followed the Nine-Eleven attacks in 2001. A consulting group reports parks have felt confident enough about their business prospects this summer to spend an estimated 750 million dollars on new rides and upgrades.