Italy goes grande for Chinese

Italy's tourism authority is asking its hotels to provide hot water in rooms and calling for more signs in Chinese in a bid to encourage extra visitors from China.

While China's tourism administration reported a record 40.95 million outbound tourists in 2007, Italy was lamenting the fact that only 800,000 were Italy-bound.

Italy is the world's fifth-largest tourism destination, logging 43.7 million arrivals in 2007, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, yet it is hardly registering on the consciousness of Chinese travelers.