Turning a passion into a business is no small feat, but for Anas El-Youssefi it’s more than that: it’s a way to transform his hometown Boulemane. A Sports Orange Corners graduate, Anas has taken his love for paragliding and founded Hike and Fly, the first project of its kind in Boulemane. With Orange Corners training, network and funding, he’s on a mission to develop Boulemane into a hub for adventure tourism, creating jobs and opportunities for local youth and women along the way. We spoke to Anas about how he went from hobbyist to entrepreneur, his vision for Boulemane’s future, and how paragliding is not just a sport – but a tool for economic and social development.
Anas, lovely to meet you! Could you introduce yourself and your business, Hike and Fly?
I’m Anas from Boulemane and I’m the founder of Hike and Fly. Through Sports Orange Corners, I aim to professionalise my hobby – paragliding – into a business that can transform the economy of the region I’m from. I don’t do that by myself, there’s a great team of young people behind me. But Sports Orange Corners really gave me the training, network and funding to kick-start this journey.
Our project is the first of its kind in our hometown in the field of sports. In Boulemane, most people work in agriculture, and young people leave the town to go to university or find work in larger cities. This is a shame, as Boulemane has so much potential. It has beautiful nature, there’s a lot to see and do here.. it just needs someone who sees it and is able to create a special kind of experience around it. So this is what my team and I are doing. Besides paragliding, we also do biking tours. And for local women and youth, we offer skills workshops, helping them to set up small businesses around paragliding. For us, paragliding is more than just a business – it’s a tool to create an economy around sports and tourism here in Boulemane.
We love to share our passion for paragliding with others. We continue to improve our skills working with European instructors, and aim to become the first group of licensed instructors in Morocco. Give others the chance to learn paragliding too. We’re currently training Morocco’s first generation of female paragliding instructors. In the last two years or so, I received a lot of messages from Moroccan ladies who want to try paragliding, but with a woman instructor. Since we didn’t have any women instructors, sometimes we’d invite European paragliding pilots to give them the chance to try out this sport. But because of the high demand, I decided to start a special training programme for Moroccan women.. we started out with a small group of girls, and they should finish their training some time this year.
This year I’d also like to start doing workshops for children, as our main spot for flying is very close to a school. When the children see us fly, they want to do the same. So I’d love to offer them the opportunity to try paragliding as well.
Paragliding is more than just a business – it’s a tool to create an economy around sports and tourism in Boulemane.
Anas El-Youssefi, founder Hike and Fly
You mentioned you want to redevelop Boulemane as a regional tourism hotspot. Who are you targeting here?
Our target audience is everyone who loves extreme sports. They could be either Moroccan or European tourists. There are many European pilots who enjoy paragliding abroad, and Boulemane truly is a special place. I’ve had so many professionals visit who told me Boulemane is the most beautiful spot in Africa for paragliding. Not just because of where you fly, but also because of the weather conditions. The wind conditions make it a suitable spot both for beginners and more advanced pilots. Everyone who’s over six years old can do paragliding. We just need to work on our marketing, so more people know about us.
I won the first prize during the OCIF pitching. I’m using some of this funding from the Sports Orange Corners programme to buy more paragliding gear, but also biking and camping gear to expand our range of activities. We don’t want people to just come here to fly, but we want to offer them packages to stay longer which also include accommodation and other sports options. Encourage them to go camping here, go biking and explore the mountains and cities in the area. That way, even those who don’t like to fly can have a great relaxing weekend here away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities.
Paragliding should become part of a tourism ecosystem, where we for example partner with local biking agencies and accommodation providers. That way, young people who are into biking can turn that into a business the same way we did with paragliding.
Other than Hike and Fly, what more does Boulemane need to become this touristic destination you envision?
Not many people know about Boulemane yet. It’s not an easy place to reach, it lacks infrastructure. And if you look online, do research into what you can do in Boulemane, you won’t find a lot yet. We can definitely improve there. When people search for Boulemane in the future, I want their first hit to be that you should come to Boulemane to go paragliding.
Working in tourism also requires different skills than working in agriculture. People here would benefit from training to help them improve their skills. Language courses for example, very important if you want to attract tourists from abroad. Or learn entrepreneurship and technology skills to create small businesses to offer services to tourists.
There are hotels, but they are not visible on social media. People here don’t have the skills to create an Instagram page, for example. It may sound basic, but they wouldn’t know how to do it. So they create a business, but they don’t have the necessary skills and knowledge to make it a success and the business fails within a year. And their next business will fail for exactly the same reason.
I had to go all the way to Casablanca to get that knowledge. 300 or 400 kilometres. But it was a necessary investment to improve myself, my skills, and to make this business a success for the people of the region. But most people wouldn’t know programmes like Orange Corners exist, and if they did, they wouldn’t know how to apply for it.
When I started Sports Orange Corners, there was nothing. I wasn’t an entrepreneur, just a paraglider with an idea. Sports Orange Corners helped me create that business.
Anas, founder Hike and Fly
What did Sports Orange Corners mean to you?
When I started Sports Orange Corners, there was nothing. I wasn’t an entrepreneur, just a paraglider with an idea. I didn’t have the skills to create a business, had never founded a business, never ran a business. Sports Orange Corners helped me create that business. Through the workshops, I got the skills to improve that business, found a network, got funding. Sports Orange Corners is where we really turned this into a business. We’re up and running since 2020. I started it together with a friend, and today we’re about 100 people. And 20 of those people have already been able to turn this into a professional career. They no longer need to work in agriculture, but are professional paragliders now.
I’m part of the international FlyOppi organisation, on the team working to improve the paragliding system in Morocco and worldwide. I’d like Boulemane to be an example for other places in Morocco. Morocco has a lot of mountains in general, and there’s a lot of areas that’d benefit from further development just like Boulemane. Sports has the power to transform cities, like surfing did for Agadir. People from all over the world come to Agadir to surf. I believe paragliding can do the same for Boulemane. And after Boulemane I’d like to see where else I can start a similar movement, using paragliding as a catalyst for rural development.
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