Spring Breakers are coming to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, one of the nation’s hot spots for the annual spring ritual that sees college students head for bikini-weather coasts in search of paradise.

And Fort Lauderdale will be ready for them, city officials said Wednesday.

Unlike Miami Beach, where local leaders have made it clear for the second year in a row that they are with Spring Break, Fort Lauderdale is embracing the Spring Break crowds.

“breaking up”

“We open our doors to everybody,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said Wednesday. “We welcome all tourists.”

The mayor told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he doesn’t see Fort Lauderdale Spring Break.

ever ghosting

“We did that once — in the ’80s,” he said. “We changed the dynamic. It’s no longer a free-for-all. Kids were spending $100 a week to stay in a hotel. They’d bunch up four or five people in a room. Now we have a much more upscale presence here on Fort Lauderdale beach. We see a different type of person coming here for Spring Break.”

During a beachfront news conference on Wednesday, Mayor Dean Trantalis says Fort Lauderdale is expecting another large Spring Break crowd this year. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)