I am writing as someone who knows very little about the area and who was strongly considering a Red Sea trip in the near future. If anything I say reveal that ignorance, I will be pleased to be corrected.
When people I know talk of trips to the Red Sea, they think of Egypt. They do not think of Saudi Arabia, even though the two countries have about equal access, and even though both countries are ostensibly on friendly terms with us. I assume it is the presence of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia that makes the difference. A couple of years ago I chanced upon an article about how Saudi Arabia was trying to beef up dive tourism, and the article said a stumbling block was those laws, including especially laws regarding women. I just did a quick search and found an article that suggests that things haven't changed. When we talked about the article in our shop, we joked about how absurd it would be for us to try to sell a trip there. We laughed about having to supply neoprene burqas to our women divers. Such a trip was dismissed as absurd.
So, I suspect that if Islamic law similar to that of Saudi Arabia were to be imposed, then there would indeed be a great loss of tourism. If nothing else, there would be no reason to prefer Egypt to Saudi Arabia in that regard.
When people I know talk of trips to the Red Sea, they think of Egypt. They do not think of Saudi Arabia, even though the two countries have about equal access, and even though both countries are ostensibly on friendly terms with us. I assume it is the presence of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia that makes the difference. A couple of years ago I chanced upon an article about how Saudi Arabia was trying to beef up dive tourism, and the article said a stumbling block was those laws, including especially laws regarding women. I just did a quick search and found an article that suggests that things haven't changed. When we talked about the article in our shop, we joked about how absurd it would be for us to try to sell a trip there. We laughed about having to supply neoprene burqas to our women divers. Such a trip was dismissed as absurd.
So, I suspect that if Islamic law similar to that of Saudi Arabia were to be imposed, then there would indeed be a great loss of tourism. If nothing else, there would be no reason to prefer Egypt to Saudi Arabia in that regard.