The new service enables students, lecturers and visitors to map their route to the University in a series of simple steps. Multimap delivers step-by-step travel directions and plots the route on a map, from any start point in the country.

 Visitors access the “Travel Directions” service through the Accommodation pages at www.leeds.ac.uk/accommodation. There’s a great deal on offer at University of Leeds accommodation – both catered and self-catering accommodation, residences large and small, in contemporary or traditional buildings, on campus, close to the city or further out.  Multimap can show prospective students and visitors where each residence is in Leeds, and how to get there from anywhere in the country.  On the web site, simply click the “Area map” link, select “Multimap directions”, and enter the postcode and/or street/city name of the beginning and end of the journey.  Multimap delivers clear, user-friendly, step-by-step directions; estimated cumulative journey times and distances; and links to detailed maps of each step. An overview map that plots the entire journey also appears, and users click on forward and backward arrows to move between street-level maps of each step of the journey.

 Heather Sugden, accommodation manager at The University of Leeds, said, “We have already seen huge benefits from the new services. Typically during Fresher’s Week, when more than 7000 new students and their families are negotiating their way round the city for the first time, a great deal of our time is taken up giving directions on the phone. This year, much of this was avoided as students simply printed out the step-by-step travel directions powered by Multimap. We’re delighted with the results and feedback from our students has been very positive,” she continued.

 Willem Mijnarends, head of sales, Multimap, commented, “We work with a number of leading universities in the UK to ensure that finding their way around doesn’t become an unnecessary source of stress for students, and are delighted to welcome The University of Leeds on board. Not only are our services easy to follow, but it’s also easy for users of the web site to find their way to them from the homepage.”

About Multimap

Multimap is Europe's leading provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms and in multiple languages.

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; weather forecasts; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 7.3 million unique users, registers more than 140 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK Multimap recently featured in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table of fastest-growing unquoted UK companies across all sectors.

Visit www.leeds.ac.uk for more information.