Advantage Travel Partnership’s CEO Julia Lo Bue-Said was beaten in a light-hearted Job Swap quiz on BBC Three Counties Radio on Tuesday morning by the show’s host Babs Michel.

But she used her appearance on the programme, which goes out across Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, to promote the services of Advantage Travel’s 750 agent members.

Describing travel as ‘the best industry ever’, Julia said on air that she represented independent agents who ‘help you to get away on great holidays or, if you’re travelling for business, they make sure you get somewhere safely and there are 750 of them across the country that I work with’.

She added: “My members are absolutely top of the list when you think about going away, first thing you should be thinking about.

“Whatever your needs are…whether it’s a bespoke or a quick city break or [when prompted by Babs] cheap and cheerful.”

During the quiz, in which Julia had to ‘swap roles’ with the radio presenter, she correctly answered three questions about entertainment while Babs correctly answered three travel-related questions.

Julia knew that Lady Gaga was Godmother to Elton John’s two children, that Call the Midwife is set in Poplar and that Winona Ryder was the starlet once accused for shoplifting on Fifth Avenue.

Babs knew that France was the most popular travel destination in 2024, that ATH was the airport code for Athens and the smallest landlocked country is the Vatican City.

In the tiebreaker, they were both asked how many aircraft are in the sky at any one time. Julia guessed 15,000 but Babs was closer, guessing 9,000 which was just 728 short of the correct answer.

Babs joked that she was ‘hired’ and Julia was ‘fired’, adding: “I crushed you!”

Advantage later posted about Julia’s early morning appearance, saying: “It was a slightly different feature to what Julia is used to but it was a fun interview and gave us the opportunity to amplify the voice of our travel agent experts, who work tirelessly for their customers whether travelling for business or leisure, providing the very best service. Just don’t ask her if she was fired or hired at the end!”