Using the data-role attribute and setting the width option via html attributes doesn't seem to work.

The below code will not set the width option.
<span data-role="tooltip" data-width="200"></span>

I've found that this is because the width property is not set in the tooltip default options. I've temporarily fixed this using:
kendo.ui.Tooltip.fn.options.width = "";

This has been tested in v2013.2.716

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will include the width as a default option in our next internal release.
As a small sign of our appreciation I updated your Telerik points.

Regards,
Alexander Popov
Telerik