Red Sea coastal cities (RSCC) are of great importance as they are an important economic, touristic and mining base for the government, society and environment as well. The city of Marsa Alam is globally known for its unique marine environment and El-Sukary Gold Mine. There has been an urgent need to obtain clear information about the status of the city during the past period for managing the city and its resource. This study aims at investigating land use land cover change (LUCC) and urban expansion of Marsa Alam during 1984-2020. For this purpose, Spectral angle mapper (SAM) classifier and Post classification comparison (PCC) change detection technique were used to analyse five Landsat datasets covering the study period.  The results revealed an increase in the urban and green areas. Driving forces and constraints influencing the urban growth as well as the population growth were discussed. Population number of the city is so far from the planned/needed number and do not reflect the city importance in regard to tourism and mining. More governmental efforts are needed to encourage in-migration to the city and support private sector investments. Monitoring outputs obtained from remote sensing and GIS integration is still important in providing valuable basic information needed to manage the city, its resources and research. Further monitoring work of this line is needed to cover other RSCC at the local and regional levels.