Agatha Christie stayed at the Old Cataract hotel in Egypt more than 70 years ago, writing what would become one of her most famous murder mystery novels, Death on the Nile.
The stunning hotel in Aswan, which helped to inspire the renowned crime writer, is now more than a century old, and is undergoing a major facelift.
Part of a US$368 million (Dh1.35 billion) restoration programme that includes nine historic properties, it is scheduled to reopen in September under the management of the French luxury brand Sofitel.
Built by the tour operator Thomas Cook towards the end of the 19th century, the Old Cataract opened its doors in 1899 and was a five-star stopover for Victorian travellers venturing down the Nile.
By the 1930s and then after the Second World War, it attracted the rich and famous from across Europe, including the former British prime minister Winston Churchill, the Aga Khan and in the 1980s Diana, Princess of Wales, and Princess Caroline of Monaco.
"It enchants me," says Hercule Poirot, Christie's fictional Belgian detective, when he is staying at the Cataract Hotel on holiday in Death on the Nile. "The black rocks of Elephantine [the island off the hotel], and the sun, and the little boats on the river."
Poirot's love affair with Egypt is shared by millions as tourism in the country accounted for about 11.5 per cent of the economy last year as visitors flocked to historic sites such as the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings.
Others headed to the more modern resort town of Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea.
Tourism in Egypt creates one in seven jobs directly and indirectly, and more than 14 million tourists visited the country last year, spending about $13bn, according to the Egyptian Tourist Authority.
This year it has been a different story.
As travel warnings were issued following the uprisings and tour operators cancelled trips, the number of tourists to Egypt dropped 46 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year.
"The government is expected to be very committed to continuing to renovate historic properties as this is an important element of their activity to attract more travellers in Egypt," says Nadejda Popova, a travel and tourism analyst at Euromonitor International.
"As such, the country is expected to have increased levels of renovation works for historic sites and buildings. Egypt's tourism industry was brought to a standstill amid the unfolding crisis and its recovery now only depends on a guaranteed return to stability."
The country is hoping to attract 25 million visitors a year by 2020.
But with occupancy levels depressed, this is an ideal time for work to take place on historic hotels and properties, the state-owned holding company behind the project says.
"Now that we have some turbulence in tourism in Egypt, we've found that it is the right time to invest and continue investing in renovation," says Aly Abdel Aziz, the chief executive of Egypt's Holding Company for Tourism, Hotels and Cinema.
"Let's do the renovation in order to meet the competition in other destinations once we have the tourism back in Egypt - hopefully soon."
Other historic hotels to undergo restoration include the Shepheard in Cairo and the Luxor, which will both be managed by Rocco Forte, and the Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, which is already closed for renovation and is scheduled to open in two years.
All of the properties boast a wealth of history and the restoration programme, which was launched a few years ago, will restore them to their prime.
"As part of this commitment, these properties will undergo total renovation to bring them back to their former glory while conserving their original features," says Mr Aziz. "We will closely manage these historic assets to ensure that sales are increased and we are able to compete with Egypt's growing private sector.
"These iconic hotels within this collection play an important role in Egypt's history and it is our mission to preserve these exquisite national treasures. With significant investment and dedicated restoration projects for each of these landmark properties over the next three years, we will ensure that these prestigious hotels stand glorious for generations to come, while still retaining their individuality."
The recent revolution and its devastating impact on Egypt's tourism industry have caused delays in the restoration programme.
Tourism analysts say it is important for Egypt to raise the standards of its hotels now as well as the areas surrounding its attractions, even though Mr Aziz believes a major recovery of the industry will take more than a year.
"I'm sure the tourism will boom overnight, but let's give it time and let's be ready for it," he says. "We have a lot of work to do for the future. It's not only the hotels. It's the surrounding of the areas like the Pyramids, the West Bank in Luxor, the Egyptian Museum. We have to clean up all these areas and bring them up to date."
The restoration of hotels is a complicated task. "It's not only a renovation," Mr Aziz says of the programme. "It's a complete rehabilitation. We're not only painting walls. We're demolishing the hotel completely from the inside. We are re-cabling hotels. We are redesigning hotels. It's more difficult than building a new hotel."
A breakdown of the tourism figures shows that 12 per cent of the country's visitors arrived from other parts of the Middle East, the second biggest market. Tourists from Europe made up the bulk of arrivals at 76 per cent.
Visitors from the Emirates last year rose 8.5 per cent on 2009 to 53,815.
"The desirability to visit the historical parts of Egypt is still strong," says Jim FitzGibbon, the president of worldwide hotel operations for Four Seasons, which manages hotels in Cairo, Alexandria, and Sharm el Sheikh. "The tourism industry in that part of the world has to get back on track and I think it will."
Hopefully, it will do so with the same splendour and style that enchanted Agatha Christie.
