Retail spending growth was at an 11-month peak in July led by credit card spending on summer vacation travel, according to figures from First Data Corp.

The First Data SpendTrend analysis July 1–31, compared with July 2–August 1, 2013. SpendTrend tracks same-store point-of-sale data by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks from nearly four million merchant locations in the U.S.

Krish Mantripragada, SVP of information and analytics solutions at First Data, said it's notable that both credit spending growth (up 6.2 percent in July), and credit transaction growth (up 7.5 percent), improved significantly over June figures, driven by travel-related categories in which credit is the preferred method of payment. 

Dollar volume growth of 3.9 percent for the month marked an improvement over growth of 3 percent in June. The largest uptick was in hotel and travel, where dollar volume grew 7.9 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

July’s average ticket growth of 1.5 percent (vs. 0.9 percent in June) was the strongest all year. Retail average ticket growth of 0.4 percent in July was a slight increase from negative growth of -.2 percent in June.