The Third Edition of the Umrah and Ziyarah Forum Observes a Qualitative Transformation in Designing the Umrah Performer’s Journey
منتدى العمرة والزيارة في نسخته الثالثة يرصد تحولًا نوعيًا في تصميم رحلة المعتمر
Crowd management within the Umrah ecosystem is no longer measured solely by its ability to control human flows; rather, it is now measured by its success in designing an integrated experience for the visitor. This transformation was clearly evident in the sessions of the third edition of the Umrah and Ziyarah Forum, which highlighted a fundamental shift from a traditional operating model to precise engineering of the Umrah performer’s journey path. Discussions indicated that the ecosystem no longer deals with crowds as numbers to be organized, but as individual journeys requiring detailed optimization—starting from the pre-planning stage, through arrival, transportation, and performing rituals, until departure—within a connected experience managed according to high standards of efficiency and quality. In this context, intervening at bottleneck points is no longer the primary solution; instead, predicting and preventing their formation has become the goal through the employment of Big Data, analyzing movement patterns, and designing flexible paths that accommodate density changes in real-time. Participating entities at the forum presented operational models adopting this approach, which contributed to reducing waiting times and increasing the fluidity of movement. The technical solutions showcased in the accompanying exhibition further reinforced this direction through smart applications that accompany the performer on their journey, multilingual guidance systems, and digital platforms that unify services into a single interface, thereby reducing effort and minimizing distraction. The presentations at the forum did not overlook the human dimension of the experience, emphasizing that service quality is incomplete without considering the cultural and linguistic diversity of visitors and achieving a sense of tranquility and ease at various stages of the journey. This requires integration between infrastructure, field service, and technology. This transformation comes as an extension of the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, which placed improving the experience of the Guests of Rahman among its priorities through comprehensive development that goes beyond operational efficiency to building an integrated human experience. Between organization and precise engineering, the Umrah ecosystem is moving toward an advanced stage in which crowds are managed with a proactive design mindset. Here, the quality of the experience integrates with operational efficiency to ensure the Umrah performer’s journey is smooth, integrated, and distinguished at all levels.