Mr Barr told an annual reports hearing on Monday sites for future accommodation at the arboretum and Stromlo Forest Park were among those he was seeking foreign investment in, citing his role in the recent sale of the Molonglo Group's Hotel Hotel to Hong Kong hoteliers Ovolo Group.

Mr Barr met with the group on a trade mission, spruiking investment potential in the Canberra market.

"Some months later, having done their due diligence on the Canberra market they acquired the Nishi hotel from the Molonglo Group," Mr Barr said.

"There's a practical example where a trade mission and a meeting I had with them encouraged investment in Canberra led to an outcome of them investing in Canberra and acquiring a property in our market in their Australian expansion.

"I've done this now in a number of international markets, in Japan Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and will continue to have this as an element of our trade missions."

A spokeswoman for the chief minister confirmed the site had been identified as a "future opportunity" during recent trade missions.

"We are in the process of undertaking some analysis on the site requirements and expect that an Expression of Interest for the opportunity will be released in 2019 to determine possible partnerships to develop the site," she said.

Mr Barr also said he would "seek to diversify the number of potential bidders", with a view to entice another international hotel chain to Canberra.

Doing so would ingratiate the city into the national and international marketing campaigns of those hotels, he said.

"For Canberra to have a presence in that is important otherwise we are not a part of those national and international marketing efforts from those hotel chains and from those airlines and sometimes even through the Tourism Australia partnerships because you can't market a product you don't have in a particular city so the more product they do have in Canberra the more we get onto those," Mr Barr said.

The arboretum opened in 2013 in an area burnt out by the 2001 and 2003 Canberra bushfires.

It has since become one of the city's most popular attractions, with more than 550,000 visitors last financial year.

The ACT government first flagged its desire for a boutique hotel at the arboretum in May 2016, as part of a public survey to help "inform" future development.

However it later emerged the hotel proposal was already progressing when the survey was released, with a string of emails dating back to the previous August showing a site had already been set aside.

The 1.7 hectare site - forest 69, south of Dairy Farmers Hill - was previously earmarked for a future forest of Chinese golden larch trees, but an internal overview of the hotel proposal said it was a "prime location for a tourism/visitor related facility" given its central location within the arboretum and "unsurpassed long distance views to the south-east, east, north-west and west".

The arboretum's infrastructure master plan indicated the hotel and conference facility would be "medium-sized" and built within five to 10 years through a public/private partnership with an expressions of interest process to begin when economic conditions were "suitable".

There was also talk of future development of "boutique" tree house accommodation also through private investment.

However the development will require a National Capital Plan amendment, which means the ACT government will have to get the National Capital Authority and the federal government on board.