Saudi Arabia isn’t sure if it wants to invest in Egypt’s Red Sea coast, a minister said

Saudi Arabia has enough hotel rooms to host the 2034 World Cup, but the kingdom’s tourism minister stated on Sunday that it is concentrating on expanding its domestic hotel space and has not yet made a decision about investing in a region near Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

Following a significant investment by the United Arab Emirates to develop a portion of Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, Cairo has been planning a potential investment to develop Ras Gamila, a tract of mostly undeveloped coastline close to the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

When asked about potential Saudi investment, however, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb told the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh that the kingdom was putting more emphasis on creating new domestic travel destinations, including the massive Red Sea Global development, which contains plans to construct 17 new hotels by May of next year.

The world soccer governing organization, FIFA, has informed Saudi Arabia that it already has enough hotel rooms to handle the anticipated number of visitors for the 2034 World Cup, according to Al-Khateeb.

“They checked the number of rooms today, and we qualify, but we are adding more rooms, and we are adding a better experience, for example, luxury destinations,” he said.

He stated that tourists were eager to visit the kingdom to engage in other activities, but he emphasized that Saudi Arabia had not taken any action to relax the prohibition on the sale of alcohol.

In an effort to attract visitors and foreign companies, the formerly ultra-conservative kingdom has loosened some prohibitions as part of a larger strategy to diversify its economy and reduce its reliance on oil.