A meeting of the House energy and commerce committee which focused on the latest developments regarding travel arrangements to and from the north was controversially held behind closed doors on Wednesday.

The meeting was set up after tour operator Tui on Friday denied reports that it had struck a deal with the Republic of Cyprus to stop providing day trips for its holidaymakers in Cyprus to the north.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Tourism Minister Costas Koumis who requested it be held behind closed doors with no journalists present. His request was accepted by majority vote but not without opposition.

Committee head and Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis and Akel MP Irene Charalambidou joined forces to oppose the request.

Hadjiyiannis said that closed sessions have become the norm and that such practice removes the opportunity for journalists to contribute to the investigation, expose and evaluate the issues. He stressed that while he respected the majority’s view, he strongly disagreed.

Charalambidou said that the issue had been discussed multiple times with full transparency in a House audit committee meeting.

She described the request for a closed meeting as incomprehensible, arguing that it should be open to ensure transparency on all levels.

Following the decision to close the meeting to the media and the subsequent departure of journalists from the room, Koumis also requested that the invited guests leave, allowing only members of the legislative and executive branches to remain.

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), the committee head accused the deputy minister of secrecy. In response, Koumis said that the issue was not one of secrecy but of protecting national interests.

The session eventually proceeded with the invited guests present, but no journalists. Attendees included the general director of the deputy ministry of tourism, and representatives from the foreign ministry, the legal service and a wide range of stakeholders from the tourism industry.

On Friday, in a statement to the Cyprus Mail, Tui confirmed that the reported email sent by the company’s operations team manager in Cyprus to its local partners indicating that it would no longer promote or sell excursions to the north was authentic, but that it “does not reflect” the company’s position on the matter.

Earlier in the day, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had said Cyprus did not ask Tui to scrap its excursions to the north.

But he had added that the government’s longstanding policy is that it does not wish to see tourists going on trips to or staying in the north.