Part of the country series of articles.
TRAVEL ADVISORY: EXERCISE CAUTIONThe Commonwealth advises travellers to exercise caution in this country. Some areas or circumstances may carry elevated risk. Travellers should monitor local conditions and follow the guidance of local authorities.
| Republic of Vanuatu | |
|---|---|
| Republic | |
 |
|
| Capital | Port Vila |
| Languages | Bislama, English, French, and over 130 indigenous languages |
| Population | 370,000 |
Vanuatu is an archipelago of about eighty islands stretching for nearly nine hundred kilometres of the southwest Pacific, and it contains more distinct languages per capita than any other country on Earth – over a hundred and thirty Melanesian languages, plus Bislama, the English-based creole that functions as the common tongue. The linguistic density reflects island communities separated by open water that developed independently over millennia.
Port Vila sits on the island of Efate and is the capital – a small tropical city with a harbour, a market, a French influence in the restaurants and a British influence in the administrative culture. Both are legacies of the New Hebrides Condominium, the shared French and British colonial administration that ran the islands until independence in 1995 and was known locally as the Pandemonium. The dual administration produced duplicate bureaucracies, courts and school systems in different languages.
Copra, fishing and tourism are the economic pillars. Port Vila’s resort industry draws visitors from Australia and New Zealand, and outer island tourism has developed a separate market for travellers seeking alternatives to Fiji. The ni-Vanuatu cultural tradition – kastom – is maintained on the outer islands in full practice: the grade-taking ceremonies and land-diving on Pentecost island are indigenous institutions that predate tourism and operate independently of it.