Nusuk Masar and Umrah Technology: What Umrah Companies in Saudi Arabia Need Alongside the Platform

Nusuk Masar is the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah's B2B platform for the parties that serve pilgrims: Saudi Umrah companies, external agents abroad, Hajj offices and service providers. It is where agents are qualified, contracts are documented and packages are built. Your own systems for bookings, groups, finance and pilgrim communication should sit alongside it, not replace it.

This guide is for owners, operations managers and IT leads at Umrah and Hajj service companies in Saudi Arabia. It explains what Nusuk Masar does based on official announcements, what the ministry has made mandatory, which systems an operator still needs around it, how to decide between building and buying, and how the PDPL applies to pilgrim data.

What is the Nusuk Masar platform?

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced the launch of Nusuk Masar in June 2024, describing it as a platform that offers a unified experience for all parties involved in the Hajj process, including pilgrims, ministry employees, service providers and Hajj offices. The ministry said it enables service providers to make contracts and create more flexible packages, and gives Hajj offices a unified contract detailing the services contracted.

Since then the platform has become central to the Umrah season too:

• Housing contracts: from the start of the 1446 AH Umrah season, the ministry asked Umrah companies, establishments and external agents to document pilgrims' housing contracts on Nusuk Masar, in tourist hospitality facilities licensed by the Ministry of Tourism. The Saudi Press Agency reported in June 2025 that Umrah visa issuance is now contingent on a documented contract with a licensed hospitality provider.
• Agent qualification and final contracts: on 11 May 2026, the ministry launched the external agents qualification and final contracting service for the 1448 AH Umrah season on Nusuk Masar, using a unified electronic contract model verified by a QR code on Nusuk.
• Contracting with local providers: a second service lets Saudi Umrah companies contract with domestic providers of accommodation, transport, catering and value-added services, and design packages and programmes, on the platform.

Nusuk Masar is different from Nusuk Umrah, the ministry-overseen platform where pilgrims from eligible countries browse and book packages from licensed providers directly, and from the Nusuk app, which pilgrims use for permits. An Umrah company may deal with all three.

What does the 1448 AH Umrah season calendar mean for operators?

The ministry's 1448 AH Umrah season calendar sets the dates your systems must plan around:

Milestone	Hijri date	Gregorian date
External agent qualification and final contracts via the electronic path	24 Dhul-Qi'dah 1447	11 May 2026
Contracting between Umrah companies and service providers, and package design	25 Dhul-Qi'dah 1447	12 May 2026
Umrah visa issuance and pilgrim entry begin	14 Dhul-Hijjah 1447	31 May 2026
Last day for Umrah visa issuance	1 Shawwal 1448	9 March 2027
Last day for pilgrim entry	15 Shawwal 1448	23 March 2027
Last day for pilgrim departure	30 Shawwal 1448	7 April 2027

Your internal system should store both Hijri and Gregorian dates and drive reminders, release dates for hotel allotments and departure tracking from them.

Why does enforcement make good operator systems essential?

The ministry treats contracted services as binding. In April 2026 it suspended three Umrah companies after some pilgrims arrived without the accommodation set out in approved contractual programmes, required them to house all affected pilgrims immediately, and took measures against the external agents contracted with them. An operator that cannot see, in one place, which pilgrims are linked to which contract, hotel, room and transport leg is exposed to exactly this kind of failure.

What systems does an Umrah company need alongside Nusuk Masar?

Nusuk Masar is the official record of contracts and packages. Running the business still needs internal systems that plan, execute, bill and communicate. The table maps typical operator needs to system components.

Need	Component	Nusuk Masar role
Manage agents, groups and pilgrim lists	Group and booking management with pilgrim profiles	Mirrors contracts and groups documented on the platform for internal tracking
Hotel room allocation and rooming lists	Accommodation module with allotments and release dates	Must reconcile with housing contracts documented on Nusuk Masar
Airport, intercity and ziyarah transport	Transport scheduling with vehicles, drivers and manifests	Follows contracted transport services
Agent and partner relationships	CRM with pipeline, contracts, commissions and service history	Complements agent qualification on the platform
Invoicing, VAT and receivables	Accounting or ERP with ZATCA e-invoicing	Separate obligation under ZATCA rules
Pilgrim communication	WhatsApp, SMS and email messaging in several languages	Uses data from your internal system
On-the-ground guidance	Pilgrim mobile app or web portal: itinerary, hotel, transport, contacts	Complements the official Nusuk app; does not replace it
Management visibility	Dashboards for occupancy, arrivals, complaints and margins	Draws on internal and exported data

Group and booking management

This is the heart of an Umrah booking system. It should hold each group, its agent, package, arrival and departure flights, pilgrim list and the services attached to each pilgrim, with a clear status from contract to departure.

Accounting and ZATCA e-invoicing

Invoices to agents, hotels and partners must follow ZATCA's e-invoicing rules. ZATCA's Wave 25, announced on 24 July 2026, covers taxpayers with VAT-able revenue above SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, with Fatoora integration due by 1 February 2027. See our e-invoicing guide for Saudi Arabia.

Multilingual communication and apps

Pilgrims come from many countries. Messages, apps and support should work in Arabic and English at minimum, and in the main languages of your source markets such as Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish or French. A multilingual WhatsApp chatbot can answer routine questions about hotels, buses and timings, while a mobile app can show each pilgrim their own itinerary.

Is there an official Nusuk Masar API?

We have not found an official, publicly documented API for Nusuk Masar on the ministry's or Nusuk's websites. Do not plan a project around automated integration unless the ministry gives your company documented access. Until then, design your system for structured exports and imports, controlled manual entry and daily reconciliation between what is documented on the platform and what your teams are executing. If official access becomes available, a well-designed integration layer lets you switch with little rework.

Should you build or buy an Umrah booking system?

Option	When it fits	Watch out for
Off-the-shelf Umrah or travel software	Smaller operators with standard packages	Arabic quality, ZATCA support, hosting location and how fast the vendor adapts to rule changes each season
Generic ERP and CRM, configured	Operators whose main pain is finance and partner management	Weak group, rooming and transport logic
Custom platform	Larger operators, multi-market agents, or companies combining Umrah, hotels and transport	Higher upfront cost and the need for a long-term technical partner
Hybrid	Most growing operators: buy accounting, build the group, allotment and pilgrim layers	Integration quality between components

Whatever you choose, ask how the system will cope when the ministry changes a process between seasons. The answer matters more than the feature list. Our ERP and custom software service covers custom and hybrid builds.

How should an Umrah company roll out new systems?

1. Map the season: list every step from agent qualification and contracting on Nusuk Masar to pilgrim departure, and who owns each one.
2. Define the data model: agents, contracts, groups, pilgrims, hotels, rooms, transport legs and invoices, with Hijri and Gregorian dates.
3. Decide the boundaries: what stays on Nusuk Masar, what lives in your system, and how the two are reconciled each day.
4. Build or configure in phases: start with groups and accommodation, then transport, finance and pilgrim communication.
5. Go live between seasons: launch well before visa issuance opens, with trained staff and agents.
6. Review after the season: use complaints, delays and reconciliation gaps to plan the next release.

How does the PDPL apply to pilgrim data?

Operators hold passport details, nationalities, photos, contact details, flight data and sometimes health or special-needs information. This is personal data under the Personal Data Protection Law, in force since 14 September 2023 and overseen by SDAIA, and some of it is sensitive data. Practical controls include:

• Collect only what each service needs, and record the legal basis and purpose.
• Restrict access by role, especially for agents abroad and seasonal staff, and keep audit logs.
• Know where data is hosted. Storing or accessing data outside the Kingdom is a cross-border transfer under SDAIA's transfer regulations.
• Set retention periods so pilgrim data is not kept indefinitely after the season.
• Prepare a breach process that supports notifying SDAIA within 72 hours where required.

Read our PDPL compliance guide for the full checklist.

How does this connect to Vision 2030?

The Pilgrim Experience Program, a Vision 2030 realisation programme, sets the aim for its next phase to enable 30 million pilgrims to have a transformative faith experience, from idea to memory. Its objectives include facilitating hosting more pilgrims, providing high-quality services for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, and enriching their religious and cultural experience. For operators, more volume and more digital regulation point the same way: processes that once ran on spreadsheets and phone calls need systems that scale.

Next step

Amwaj Solutions is based in Madinah and builds custom software, mobile apps and integrations for Saudi businesses. If you run an Umrah company and want internal systems that work alongside Nusuk Masar, from group management to ZATCA e-invoicing and pilgrim apps, request a consultation; we respond within 24 to 48 business hours.