How Pleasant Holidays & EVOKE | INSPIRE Are Evolving to Better Serve Travel Advisors

Advisors may not know the name A | T Collective, but they almost certainly know its brands. The company is the parent of familiar industry names like Pleasant Holidays, Member First, and the recently sunset Journese, and over the last year, it has undergone a transformation — including the launch of the luxury-focused brand EVOKE | INSPIRE.

Back in October 2025, Pleasant Holidays announced a company restructure under A | T Collective. Pleasant Holidays would serve as the flagship tour operator in a family of brands, each with better-defined niches in order to better serve both travelers and the travel advisor community. As part of this restructure, Journese was retired on March 31, and was replaced by the new B2B luxury tour operator EVOKE | INSPIRE.

Travel Market Report spoke with President and CEO David Hu and Vice President and Managing Director of Trade Brands James Kareka about the creation of A | T Collective, and how Pleasant Holidays and EVOKE | INSPIRE offer distinct value propositions for advisors and their clients.

“There’s really a lot of differentiation in terms of our different segments. And what we wanted to do is make sure that we could separate — as well as distinguish — those segments so that we could serve them better,” said Hu in the exclusive interview. “We need to serve our clientele the way they want to be served.”

On the Creation of A | T Collective

Hu joined Pleasant Holidays in early 2025 following the retirement of longtime CEO Jack E. Richards announced his retirement. Since Hu took over, he

“I got here about a year plus ago, and one of the things I noticed is that we were trying to do a lot of things for lots of different people … certain brands wound up melding together,” explained Hu. “But the funny thing is, as those brands melded together, the segments of the business that we’re trying to serve actually were pulling apart. There’s the luxury side that’s very different from our premium side, and then even our business with AAA, that’s completely separated from what our current Corsortia trade business looks like.”

The company realized that a reset was in order. Following the restructure, A | T Collective was introduced with four distinct brands, each with a clear focus: Pleasant Holidays for premium travel, EVOKE | INSPIRE for luxury, Pleasant Holidays for destination services, and Member First for AAA Travel.

“One of the ideas that we had was let’s actually create four separate brands that would actually focus on each one of those different segments in its own distinct manner … for the luxury, we really wanted to make sure that it serves the luxury segment with the services that it wanted. For the premium segment, we want to make sure that we’re getting the right kind of products and services that they require.”

The new parent company A | T Collective exists as an umbrella brand that connects the various companies while keeping their individual identities distinct. When asked why the company didn’t go with Pleasant Holidays as the name of the parent company, Hu explained this was a deliberate choice to help distinguish Pleasant from the other brands.

“There is always a bit of transition time period in terms of A | T Collective itself … I think for a travel advisor’s perspective, they actually don’t need to know A | T Collective at all. They just need to know Pleasant Holidays [and] Evoke | INSPIRE.”

According to Kareka, the restructure has been positively received by the trade.

“I’ve been to a number of conferences now, and I’ve had the opportunity to present the brands … the travel advisor is much clearer now, I think, on the purpose of the two brands,” he said. “Whereas prior to us doing this restructure, there was a lot of confusion around the purpose of [Pleasant Holidays and EVOKE | INSPIRE] and how to utilize them.”

Understanding EVOKE | INSPIRE: How It Differs from Journese

Both Kareka and Hu told TMR that the restructuring aimed to help advisors distinguish between the products offered by Pleasant Holidays and EVOKE | INSPIRE.

“The Pleasant and Journeys brands were becoming very similar to one another. And Journeys was really losing brand integrity over time because there was not enough differentiation between the two. So that’s what led us to eventually sunset that brand and bring life to EVOKE | INSPIRE,” explained Kareka.

Described as “a true luxury brand,” EVOKE | INSPIRE is an overall more elevated brand than its predecessor, keeping what worked with Journese but refined based on advisor feedback.

“[EVOKE | INSPIRE is] focused on custom independent travel, offering the flexibility and convenience with access to private in-destination experiences,” said Kareka. “The brand was built on the philosophy that travel is transformational rather than transactional. I think in a world where so much buying and purchasing is driven online, it’s very easy for us to … forget about the end customer, the traveler, and the advisor’s needs. So our focus is really to dig deeper. To better understand what the travel advisor needs for the luxury customer.”

Before the brand officially debuted on April 1, EVOKE | INSPIRE had a soft launch in Q1 in which 25 top advisors from Journese were invited to experience the new brand and share their thoughts.

“We got a ton of feedback. And the purpose of that was to really make sure that we listened and edited our approach based on what our best customers needed,” said Kareka. “They were invaluable to the product and the product development, the service, and the overall experience that we have today.”

Part of this change involved curating the collection of properties to ensure each met a luxury standard, focusing on 4.5- and 5-star hotels and resorts. EVOKE | INSPIRE eliminated approximately 1,100 hotels that were previously offered by Journese. Kareka said that the portfolio will continue to develop, and there are approximately 500 properties they plan to add over the next seven months.

In addition to the selection of accommodation type, the B2B tour operator also added more private guides and drivers, more private in-destination experiences, and private yachts and air service.

How Pleasant Holidays & EVOKE | INSPIRE Are Investing In Advisor Support

Pleasant Holidays and EVOKE | INSPIRE are not done evolving; both brands continue to invest in advisor-facing enhancements. The tour operator has eliminated brand change fees and eliminated cancel fees outside four days. The company’s travel protection program has a cashback option with 100% commission protection.

“Each of the brands are very focused on what we’re trying to provide. And to support all of that, we are putting in multi-million dollars of technology investment that will be coming to fruition in the next year or two,” Hu told TMR. “People won’t even see it because it is [behind the scenes]. We have all these fantastic people — reservation advisors, BDMs, everybody else — to make sure that no matter what we do in the back end, they’re going to get the most fantastic experience possible in the front end.”

As well as the back-end enhancements, Hu said that A | T Collective is working on technological innovations. While he didn’t share specifics, he said a goal was to “automate the mundane” in order to improve the travel advisor’s efficiency and therefore ability to serve their clientele.

“Within the course of the next year or so, they’re going to see some really game-changing technology improvements that we’re going to be able to provide that will only enhance the overall experience and make both companies that much better,” said Hu. “In this new world that we’re all operating in — in terms of technology, data, and everything else — there are so many different ways to help advisors become that much more powerful in that space going forward. And our goal is to get the base level booking service to be the best it can [be].”

Hu said his goal going forward is to make Pleasant Holidays and EVOKE | INSPIRE a “core part of a travel advisor’s repertoire in terms of servicing the client as well as getting new clients.”

Kareka added that while other suppliers are pushing for automated service, A | T Collective understands the need for relationship-building and the human element in this business. “While many companies will try to drive higher and higher online adoption, we place an emphasis and value on consultative selling … regardless if it’s Pleasant or if it’s EVOKE, technology is always going to be
important. And we’re always going to drive technology forward because it does drive efficiency.”

Both Hu and Kareka said they appreciate the advisor community and look forward to spreading word of the changes.

“Go on our website, go give us a try,” said Hu. “Evoke is there, Pleasant is there. Give us a try and see how it’s different.”