Younes Boumehdi on the future of morocco’s creative industries
The HIT RADIO founder reflects on culture as an economy, the opportunities around 2030, and why Morocco’s creative market can look beyond its borders.
The HIT RADIO founder reflects on culture as an economy, the opportunities around 2030, and why Morocco’s creative market can look beyond its borders.
Morocco’s creative industries are often discussed through the work they produce, from music and cinema to fashion, design and architecture. For Younes Boumehdi, founder of HIT RADIO, understanding their potential also means looking at what sits behind that creativity: jobs, businesses, audiences, infrastructure and the wider markets capable of sustaining them.
In a conversation with Next Wave, Boumehdi reflected on the economic potential of Morocco’s cultural and creative industries, the opportunities connected to tourism and 2030, and the importance of building an ecosystem that allows creative work to develop beyond individual talent.
He describes the creative economy as an ecosystem spanning around 13 sectors, including music, theatre, audiovisual media, design, architecture and gastronomy. Referring to figures from an IFC study covering 2022 and 2023, Boumehdi pointed to a sector representing around 2.4% of Morocco’s GDP, approximately 43 billion MAD in revenue and more than 116,000 jobs.
The figures shift the conversation around culture from one centred only on expression to one that also considers economic activity. Creative work can generate employment, support businesses and contribute to wider industries, but Boumehdi’s argument also suggests that this potential depends on how seriously the sector is structured and supported.
South Korea is one of the examples he points to when discussing what can happen when a country makes culture a strategic priority. The comparison is less about reproducing another country’s model than recognising that creative industries do not develop through talent alone.
Artists, designers, producers and cultural entrepreneurs can create the work, but a sustainable industry also needs financing, distribution, infrastructure, professional networks, audiences and institutions capable of helping that work reach further.
Morocco’s preparations for 2030 create another context in which this question becomes particularly relevant. Boumehdi connects the country’s tourism ambitions with opportunities across music, design, gastronomy and other creative sectors.
An increase in international visitors does not only create demand for accommodation, transport or conventional tourism experiences. It can also expose larger audiences to what Morocco designs, performs, produces, cooks, listens to and creates.
Seen this way, the opportunity around 2030 is not simply to bring more people into the country, but to think about what parts of Morocco’s contemporary creative culture they encounter while they are here, and what creative businesses may continue reaching them afterwards.
Boumehdi also looks beyond Morocco itself. Drawing from HIT RADIO’s expansion across Africa, he points to the continent and particularly its young population as an important potential market.
For Moroccan creatives and creative businesses, that introduces another direction for growth. Europe has long been one of the most visible international reference points for Moroccan cultural exchange, but the country also sits within a continent where rapidly growing audiences, cultural industries and creative scenes are developing alongside one another.
The question, then, is not only whether Moroccan creativity can travel internationally, but where its future audiences might be.
Boumehdi’s reflections ultimately position Morocco’s creative industries at the intersection of culture and economic development. They connect creative expression with employment, tourism, entrepreneurship, international visibility and opportunities across Africa.
Morocco already produces creative work across disciplines. The larger challenge is creating the financing, infrastructure, markets and professional opportunities that can allow more of that creativity to become sustainable careers and businesses.
Photo : Annie Paquin