The Northern Territory Indigenous Business Network has raised concerns over the impending sale of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia - owner-operator of Ayers Rock Resort and Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre - by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation to US-owned Journey Beyond for approximately $300 million.

Journey Beyond is owned by New York-based private equity giant Crestview Partners.

NTIBN chief executive Naomi Anstess told National Indigenous Times she "100 per cent" would rather see the properties in Indigenous hands.

"NTIBN recognises that the ILSC's statutory purpose is to assist our people with the acquisition and management of land, saltwater and freshwater so they can achieve economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits," she said.

"From our perspective, a sale to an international entity feels at odds with that purpose. While we do not have full visibility of the ILSC's considerations, we hope this decision was taken only after exhausting all other options.

"We would have welcomed opportunities for strategic partnerships, collaborations with ourselves and other Aboriginal-owned entities, or even innovative models where ownership remained with the ILSC while operations were outsourced."

An ILSC spokesperson told National Indigenous Times: "Journey Beyond has grown to now be Australia's leading and largest experiential tourism group and we believe they are the ideal potential partner, that presents us with the best opportunity to deliver on our primary objective - to fulfil our statutory obligations of returning land to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and in doing so, create benefit for Traditional Owners at both Yulara (site of Ayers Rock Resort) and Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre (in far north Queensland), as well as Indigenous people at a local, regional, and national level."

"These discussions are ongoing and at this stage there is no final binding agreement," they said.

Ms Anstess said NTIBN would "like to have seen a conversation with the ILSC to explore ways of keeping these critical properties in Aboriginal hands".

"Without the detail behind the ILSC's decision, we can't pass judgement, but we remain confident that solutions could have been found to maintain Aboriginal ownership and control," she told National Indigenous Times.

"The concern we hold is that selling culturally and economically significant properties on traditional lands to an international buyer risks undermining the ILSC's stated and statutory purpose and disenfranchises mob.

"Blakfullas have the capability, the smarts, the innovation and the will; where we dare to look."

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malardirri McCarthy, told National Indigenous Times the sale "is a commercial decision for the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and its Board, and while the sale is still under negotiation it is not appropriate to comment".