Universal Studios Japan is hoping an exciting new roller coaster will draw more visitors to the theme park in 2007.

The thrilling new attraction will be the first at the park to be built in more than one themed area. The roller coaster will start near the park entrance and extend to the lagoon in the center.

Standing more than fourteen stories tall, the new roller coaster will feature a 50-degree descent from a height of 144 feet. Four trains will carry 36 passengers each along 3,937 feet of steel track at speeds of up to 56 mph.

Universal Studios Japan estimates that it will spend more than $50 million to construct the roller coaster making it the second largest investment fro a new attraction. Previously, the park spent $120 million for the Spiderman 3-D dark ride that opened in January 2004.

Thomas Welsher of Webster, New York won a two-year lease for a new car after riding the Viper roller coaster at Six Flags Darien Lake for three days.

The Survive It To Drive It contest, sponsored by radio station WPXY-FM 97.9 began with eight contestants. By the end of the first day only four were left.

Welsher won the lease for a new 2006 Suzuki Reno Monday morning at 5 am when his only opponent got off the ride. His opponent 19-year-old Teresa Adams of Brockport just gave up.

The contest required them to ride the Viper roller coaster while Six Flags was open. Each contestant was given a 20-minute break every three hours. When the park was closed contestants slept in the roller coaster train.

Welsher rode the Viper roller coaster 395 times. The lease for the new car was valued at $6,400..

According to the Forbes survey on the international amusement park industry, today, the steepest thing in the amusement industry is the growth of spending in Asia.

The U.S. theme park industry, once a rocketing roller coaster, is looking more and more like a lazy turn on the Ferris wheel. Amusement park sales in the U.S. are forecast to grow from $10.8 billion to $12.9 billion between 2005 and 2009, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. That's an average annual growth rate of 3.9%--sluggish compared to the 5.5% the industry experienced between 1999 and 2000.

Meanwhile, the Asia/Pacific theme park market will balloon from $6.1 billion to $8.1 billion, an average annual growth rate of 5.7%. And the amusement industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined will grow about 5% per year, reaching $5 billion by 2009.

"If you look worldwide, the mature markets are in the U.S. and Western Europe," says Beth Robertson, vice president of communications at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, based in Alexandria, Va. "There's not that much land available for building. Where we're really seeing a tremendous growth is in Asia and the Middle East. In China, for example, you have a huge population with very few parks and attractions. It's a great area to find large amounts of land."