I personally think the state of our industry is okay. It's always difficult to compare with America, when we're talking well themed rides we're normally just referring to Universal and Disney which have millions of dollars to play with and where the stakes are greater. When it comes to Six Flags and Cedar Fair, it's just giant metal structures with little to no theming. Our rides on the whole don't really have those problems.
It's very easy to say our theme parks are expensive, when we know thats true. However it's not like getting a train or catching a bus. They are expensive endeavours, people know that and people can easily choose not to visit, in other words you aren't forced to visit. Now when you are inside the parks, thats another matter and things like Fastrack and the car parking don't help the situation. But what we forget is that the companies have invested millions into their parks. Take Thorpe in the last 11 years with over 60 million pounds invested in rides and attractions. It's so easy to stand their with the view that they offer poor value for money, but the only charge what they think is an acceptable level.
As for our rides, I think they are of moderate to high quality. Whilst B&M have only just entered France with Monster and Oz'Iris we've had European and World firsts for over 20 years. Nemesis is world renowned in enthusiast circles for being the best B&M created, rides like Grand National, Wild Mouse and Megafobia stand the test of time as fantastic rides. We've got Adventure Island in Southend which is booming and building its own rides from scratch. Winter Wonderland in London is proving to be success year after year, it may not have the rides of German funfairs, but it is building up its reputation with increasing popularity. Flamingoland and Drayton Manor, for all their troubles are doing well with continual investment (let us not argue about the quality of their investments here).
So in other words, in my opinion our industry is stable. Whilst it hits nowhere near the heights of Germany or parts of America, we do have decent investment and attractions.