Several have active volcanoes. Vanuatu lies in an area where cyclones occur. Vanuatu Economy of Vanuatu is based on agriculture. Rural families produce nearly all the food they need. They grow fruits and vegetables, raise chickens and hogs, and catch fish.
Tourism is important to the economy.
Small ships and airplanes serve as the main means of transportation among the islands. Vanuatu has few good roads and no railroads. The government publishes a newspaper and operates a radio station. Melanesians have lived in what is now Vanuatu for at least 3,000 years. The British explorer James Cook mapped the region in 1774 and named the islands the New Hebrides after the Hebrides islands of Scotland.