Manchester Metropolitan University - Where boot-heels wander

The birthplace of Bob Dylan is being turned into something of a tourist Mecca thanks to research by a Manchester Metropolitan University academic. David Leaver, senior lecturer in the business school, studied the birthplace of music stars such as Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He found that the locations had thriving tourism industries because baby-boomers who grew up in the 1950s and '60s are now affluent enough to travel to visit them. The study has prompted planners in Dylan's hometown, Hibbing, Minnesota, to promote an annual "Dylan Days" festival through social-networking sites and to increase the number of tours of the town.