Xenophobia could be jeopardising hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign investment needed by Australia, Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck has told the ABC.

Senator Colbeck, who is also the assistant minister for trade and investment, said he was "significantly concerned" about the negative rhetoric surrounding the recent sale of Tasmania's Van Diemen's Land farm to a Chinese buyer — particularly given the dairy giant has always been foreign-owned.

"Sending negative messages based on what can only be described as xenophobia really do concern me," he said.

Senator Colbeck said the one million Chinese tourists visiting Australia every year were taking that negative message home with them.

"One of the most frequent questions I get asked (by overseas interests) is 'are you genuinely serious about foreign investment because the rhetoric we hear in the community indicates something else'."

Senator Colbeck said large investors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were questioning whether Australia genuinely welcomes foreign capital.

"When you are looking at people who are investing in sums of $100 million at a time they look very closely at where their money is going to go," he said.

"Obviously they want to get a return on it but those subtle differences (in sentiment) can be the difference in them investing here or other places and so our ability to grow our economy in the way we are looking to do it can be limited by us not being seen as a welcome place for foreign investment.

"We will need something in the order of a trillion dollars in foreign investment between now and 2050 [to be globally competitive]."

"So not only should we welcome foreign investment, but we need it."

Figures show that 1,000 jobs are created with every $1 billion of foreign money invested here, he said.

'44 cents in every tourism dollar spent in regional areas'

Senator Colbeck said the number of Chinese visitors to Australia rose 21 per cent in 2015 and their expenditure increased 45 per cent to reach a record $8.3 billion.

Overall, there were 6.9 million international visitors to Australia last year, 8 per cent higher than a year earlier, according to figures released today by Tourism Research Australia.

Total visitor expenditure climbed a record 18 per cent to a new high of $36.6 billion.

"One of the Government's priorities has been to encourage more investment and visitation in regional areas and I'm thrilled that the International Visitor Survey showed strong growth in regional tourism," Senator Colbeck said at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) conference in Canberra.

"Forty-four cents in every tourism dollar is now spent in regional areas and our natural attractions are a key asset with visits to farms increasing by 14 per cent and visits to national or state parks increasing by 13 per cent.

"Visits to wineries increased by a massive 37 per cent, a key indicator that Tourism Australia's targeted marketing campaign, 'Restaurant Australia', has been successful in marketing our world class food and wine to the world.

"Australia's strong international education sector is also having a great impact on visitors.

"The total trip spend for education visitors increased by a huge 30 per cent for the year to $8.7 billion."