RECREATION : Amusement Parks Thrill Host Localities : Attendance has been rising 4% a year since 1984. The facilities pay taxes, spend money and provide thousands of jobs in the local communities.

People just love good thrills, and amusement parks, along with their host communities, love reaping the benefits: money, jobs, tourism.

Rides of all descriptions--in and out of the water--increasingly attract visitors, propelling the amusement park industry to an estimated $7-billion-a-year business that drew 253 million visits last year, according to the International Assn. of Amusement Parks and Attractions, based in Alexandria, Va.

“It’s a very stable and sturdy industry,” said John Graff, the association’s executive director, noting that attendance has been rising 4% a year since the group began keeping track in 1984.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department the number of parks grew nationwide from 466 in 1982 to 744 in 1987, the most recent year available.

These numbers represent a huge financial asset to communities around the country because the parks pay taxes, buy products and services, attract visitors and offer jobs.

No reliable data exists on how much money theme parks provide localities but, “the economic impact is significant,” Graff said.

Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta, is home to Six Flags Over Georgia, and to White Water, which is billed as “the most visited water park in the Southeast.”

Like other amusement parks and theme parks around the nation, those in Cobb thrive amid an insatiable quest for leisure. The parks have become more specialized, and their rides more scary--”thrilling,” as Terrie Ward, public relations manager at Six Flags, puts it.

Six Flags opened in 1967, drawing 1.2 million visits. Last year, visits totaled 2.5 million. Similarly, White Water visits rose from 350,000 in its opening year, 1984, to 800,000 last year.

While Six Flags Corp., the park operator, reportedly is in shaky financial shape, its park seems to be a money magnet, for as any amusement park-goer knows, a family of four can leave most large facilities with very little change from a $100 bill.

Tim Mescon, dean of the business school at Kennesaw State College in Georgia, said that, because “the leisure component of America has just exploded,” there is “a tremendous economic opportunity for municipalities.”

The parks also have “some drawbacks,” noted John Siegmund, an industry specialist at the U.S. Commerce Department, citing traffic congestion and the part-time nature of many jobs.

However, “The overall aspect is positive,” Siegmund said.

Indeed, park traffic adds to the already congested roads in Cobb County, but the growing numbers of vehicles are simply good news to county officials’ ears.

The facilities bring “an awful lot of tourism,” said Mack Henderson, county manager. Also, they employ several thousand workers in mostly seasonal jobs--more than 2,300 at Six Flags and 1,000 at White Water.

Mescon said communities hosting amusement parks benefit from an “incubator” effect, as the facilities help attract conventions, meetings and sporting events, filling hotels and restaurants.

Entertainment, is of course, the parks’ draw. And, during hard times, some experts believe, more families are drawn together because the parks, expensive as they can be, still are more affordable than vacations.

“You get seven days of fun in three days,” said Charles Jacques Jr., editor of Amusement Park Journal, a Natrona Heights, Pa., publication.

At White Water, where people climb aboard rides with names like Bermuda Triangle and Dragon’s Tail, Sonny Horton, general manager, said the goal is “to have more excitement without making mom and dad afraid to get on the ride.”

Sarah Moreland, age 10, went to Six Flags the other day with Elizabeth Brigden, a friend who is a college student. Among Sarah’s favorite roller coaster rides are the Mind Bender and the Georgia Cyclone.

“Riding them scares you, but it’s really fun after you do it,” said Sarah, who also has fun watching people at the parks.

With such endorsements, it is no wonder other communities are aiming to cash in on the amusement park bonanza.

In Clayton County, another Atlanta suburb, investors want to create a theme park based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel-turned-movie “Gone With the Wind,” which drew on Clayton experiences and personalities.

Such a park could catch southbound vacationers “before their final assault on Florida,” said Emory Brock, the county’s director of economic development.

If the park is built, it will have no ride so daring as the high-flying Mind Bender.

Brock said: “I don’t think a roller coaster ride would go along with the South” of the Civil War era.