"I just need an original idea"

No - you absolutely don’t.  In fact, I would encourage you not to waste time looking for inspiration and trying to think of an original idea.  You may eventually land on an idea that hasn’t been done before and consequently believe that you have found a gap in the market.  If so, you will need to thoroughly examine why that gap exists?  It is usually because there isn’t a realistic market in the gap to sustain a successful business.  The travel industry is littered with failures from companies that focussed on single destinations, niche adventures or ancillaries that people didn’t want or could buy cheaper elsewhere.  For example, I remember being pitched the idea of holidaybooks.com  - a website where customers could input where they were travelling and get recommendations for novels set in that destination and relevant guide books.  The technology was also designed to integrate with big travel booking websites so that the likes of Expedia could offer their customers books as part of the booking journey or as a post booking upsell.  There was (and remains) a gap in the market for this idea.  It was doomed to failure because direct customers to the website would get recommendations and then purchase the books more cheaply on Amazon and large travel booking websites will never create friction in the booking flow by offering an unrelated product.  There is a gap in the market but no market in the gap. 

As a trading entrepreneur, you’re not going to have enough capital to create a new sector or generate a new customer base.  Consequently. rather than looking for ‘gap in the market’ inspiration, your time would be far better spent analysing an established sector and working out how you can do it more cheaply or more effectively than the competition and in particular than the market leader.   If that research involves working in the sector for a while, so much the better.  What you will likely find is that the market leader in a sector has become bloated or complacent or hasn’t kept up with the latest technological developments or market trends.  There will almost always be an opportunity to gain a competitive edge over a market leader.  Not least because you will be leaner, more nimble, less bureaucratic, more ambitious, hungrier and have more stamina than the market leader.  Starting a business in an established market with a defined target and enemy (i.e. the market leader) will give you a much better chance for success compared to looking for an original idea.  

Established companies also have legacy processes that often make very little sense but have become entrenched habits over many years.  They will have legacy people who are good enough to get by and not bad enough to be moved on.  They will likely be paid too much after years of incremental pay increases.  As a start-up, you will have zero legacy on day one and that is a huge advantage and the advantage is increasing exponentially with AI.  Established companies are struggling to embrace the opportunities of AI because of legacy systems, processes and people.  

In truth, business ideas are ten a penny.  I think there is an opportunity for a golf and spa specialist tour operator in the travel industry for example.  I think there is an opportunity to take on the established online travel agents who have been reliant on Google for acquiring customers by building an OTA using AI and solely focussed on acquiring customers via the AI chatbots and TikTok.  I think that there will be increasing demand for cooler destinations in the summer and a travel company focussed on this trend along with wellness and activities could do well.  These are all plausible enough business ideas thought of in ten minutes in the industry that I know best.   They all could work but the implementation and execution are way more important than the idea.  That is why investors tend to back people rather than ideas.  A dedicated, resilient driven person attempting to take on an established market leader in a proven sector will have way more chance of success than someone with a fantastic, original  idea.