Shimla, Sept 26 : To promote tourism and spread awareness about protecting buildings and monuments of historic importance, students here organised a heritage walk as part of the World Tourism Week celebrations.

The students of Masters of Tourism Administration of the Himachal Pradesh University along with residents and tourists walked through Shimla covering ten heritage sites, including Gaiety Theatre, Shimla Municipal Council Building, Scandal Point, General Post Office building, Telegraph Office, Gorton Castle and the Vice Regal Lodge.

The students gave out details and narrated the importance of the monuments to tourists accompanying them.

The reason for organising the 2.5 kilometres walk was to increase tourist inflow to Shimla, apart from creating awareness on protecting the heritage of the city.

"Whatever the British have left, we want to make familiar with that. That''s why we are covering each and every monument that starts from this Christ Church," said Ravi, an organiser of the walk.

For tourists, the walk was a nice way of learning about the heritage of Shimla, which is known as the queen of hill stations in the country.

"This is magical because its'' away up on top of the mountain. It''s unique because you find a blend of Indian and English architecture which you don''t find in rest of India, which is stepping back into time," said Bill Davidson, a tourist.

Students also staged street plays to highlight the importance of heritage monuments. (ANI)